S TRANGE people occasionally ring me up and tell me they know a good scheme to avoid paying my debts. They explain they belong to a finance company that can help me out of paying back loans or mortgages because of some technicality in the small print.

I thank the callers, even if they're automated voices, but say No Thanks. You see there was a time, long ago, when someone else offered me something for nothing. It was a holiday in the Bahamas, all sunshine, sweetness, luxury and adventure. They said I'd won it in a raffle.

Anyway I fell for it, sending them £30 as an "administrative" fee, and waited for my tickets to paradise. I didn't receive them, but I did get an invitation to an event in Torquay to collect them. First I had to sit through some pleasant sales chat about a timeshare complex.

I listened carefully but didn't buy. The sales people weren't so pleasant to me after that, and told me my tickets would be in the post. Of course they weren't. When I rang the number on my letter from the company, it was unobtainable. The company had gone out of business and out of sight, taking my £30 with them, along with a lot of other cheques from gullible fools.

I learned, relatively cheaply, the cliché "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Which is why as soon as I read the words "South West Money Solutions" in the

Journal

last week I sensed disaster.

The more I read the more disastrous it got. A lot of people have given away, not a mere £30, but nearly £400 after taking up an invitation to wipe out their debts. They said Yes at the point I said No Thanks. And it appears lots of people thought they could wipe out their liabilities of thousands if they stumped up a few hundred pounds.

If the number of such offers on my phone during the last 12 months is anything to go by half the nation is employed trying to sell us an easy way out of debt. I guess they've been encouraged by the earlier success of those who challenged unfair overdraft charges on their bank accounts and who got a lot back.

This recent "solution" must have sounded too good to be true for many people. And so it was. They didn't heed their own common sense and have ended up even worse off.

As Stephen Davis of the Citizens Advice Bureau said in his letter to the

Journal

, the advice we need about money is available in the CAB office, and it really is for nothing. He doesn't promise to wipe out our debts, but to show us how to manage them.

It's not just the gullible that concern me, however. It's the people, mainly young, who set up companies based on the principle that a promise to a bank is worth nothing. Their cynicism is corrosive and we should take it seriously.

The only thing we have between us and anarchy is the trust we offer when we give our word. It's as precious given to a bank as to our best friend. In my opinion if our youngsters believe the way to become millionaires is to put on a suit, set themselves up in an office and peddle irresponsibility, then we're all in big trouble. Let's hope those who've had their fingers burned on both sides of this misguided enterprise learn a lesson and that others heed the warning too. But I suspect Mr Davis of the CAB is right in his weary prediction that we're bound to see similar stories in the paper in future. Don't let it be about you.

You might ask, by the way, why I listen to these dodgy offers on the phone. Well it's because I still reckon it's worth taking sales calls even though I'm aware I could have them barred. When I was younger I used to sell brushes door to door and I reckon that cold calling is a skill worth encouraging.

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RECEIVING letters to this column is one of the joys of putting it together every week and here's one to share. It was anonymous and followed my piece about litter. So thank you very much to the public-spirited writer who took the trouble of handing in this note to John Barum Re top of Roborough Hill:

"One hour labour of love

Extremely muddy footwear

X3 sackfulls of glass, plastic

Tins drinks bottles/cans

A liberal amount of old cardboard

As a result, one full green bin for recycling very much better there now.

What a view from up there as good as any in Barnstaple."

It qualifies as a poem in my book.