A scam letter sent to a Cumbria business has led to a warning for businesses to be vigilant.

The letter, which demanded payments to the Companies House, had been sent to Saint & Co Chartered Accountants by a client of theirs who had recently become a limited company.

The company is now working to raise awareness of the scam, particularly regarding the bogus demand for a non-existent 'Enhanced Web Filing Access' service.

Saint & Co contacted the company after being given the letters supposedly from Companies House by their clients.

The letters demanded a payment of £48 within seven days of receipt.

Lindsay Farrer, a managing partner at Saint & Co, described the scam as 'convincing' due to the small amount of money involved.

According to her, it's not unusual for people to associate scams with larger sums.

Ms Farrer said: "A client who had recently been registered as a limited company flagged this correspondence to us to check the validity of the demand, because at first glance it looks very convincing and a genuine request."

She added that there were minor errors which helped her identify it as a scam, a fact later confirmed by Companies House.

"The first thing to point out is that 'Enhanced Web Filing Access' isn’t a service which exists, but that is not instantly identifiable to businesses, especially newly created ones," Ms Farrer explained.

She pointed out a few spelling errors and said the most glaring error was a change in payment request on the second page of requisition, from Companies House to HMRC.

"We want to raise awareness of these fake letters to businesses to prevent them falling into the trap, and we would recommend that clients always run business correspondence like this by us so we can check if they’re genuine," she added.

These scam letters, printed with the Companies House's letterhead, address and contact details, pose a significant danger to businesses, particularly those that have recently been created.

Saint & Co, which operates across 10 offices in Cumbria and Dumfries & Galloway, is urging businesses to consult them about any suspicious documents to avoid falling victim to such scams.