MORE than 700 businesses in North Yorkshire have been alerted to a credit card machine till roll scam which has centred on York as its UK base.

A firm called Merchant Retail Supplies has been using a mail forwarding company called Mail Boxes Etc in Clifford Street, York, as part of its operations, but its real base is in Toronto, Canada.

A newsletter has alerted all members of the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce to the scam which begins when the company phones firms in the county and asks "if they have received the supply of rolls for the credit card machine?"

The caller suggests that he is representing the merchant acquirer firm who recruited the trader for credit card sales in the first place.

The business confirms the order and a few days later receives a box full of till rolls - and an exorbitant invoice.

Matt Boxall, principal trading standards officer for City of York Council, said: "We have had about a dozen complaints.

"In some cases the request is for £200.

"We urge anyone who has had contact from Merchant Retail Supplies to give us the information.

"We are collating evidence for the Office of Fair Trading which is seeking to take the matter up with the Canadian authorities.

"Mail Boxes Etc have co-operated fully in our inquiries.

"It seems that Merchant Retail Supplies recently operated a similar scheme in Kent with great effect, but later switched to York."

Mr Boxall said that he tended to hear from those businesses in the city which had not been caught out and had refused to pay.

These amounted to hundreds nationally.

"But there are a lot of firms who may be embarrassed to come forward or perhaps others who don't realise they have been scammed," he said.

Steve Cook, proprietor of the Mail Boxes Etc franchise in York, said his customers were often sole traders operating from home who did not want to be bombarded there with business mail.

"It's a similar system to a PO Box, except that we offer a city centre high street address.

"We will not personally get involved with our clients unless problems develop in which case we deal with the police, trading standards, Inland Revenue or Customs & Excise with whom we have extremely good relations," he said.

Updated: 11:13 Friday, July 23, 2004