You don’t have to be a genius to work out when you are being lured into a financial scam, especially if it involves money laundering. Or do you?

We’ve all received them in our inboxes. It may be an URGENT MESSAGE (they’re often in capital letters), from Mr Winston Churchill Obongo, President of Barclays Bank, Nigeria, who pleads for our help in transferring a $10m inheritance to a destitute widow in the USA/UK, or wherever we happen to live.

We delete them, of course. Only the most credulous or ill-informed people on the planet would fall for such a crude ploy.

Now, however, something more insidiously believable is doing the rounds. It pretends to come from the genuine clothing company, Harvey’s of Oldham, England. Its sender calls himself, Ronald Harvey. He says his company moves money around the world, but falls foul of a 25 percent “international money transfer tax” on businesses. Individuals, apparently only pay 7 percent.

You can see where this is going. You are the key to reducing Harvey’s costs by 18 percent. All you have to do is accept funds into your bank and use a money transfer firm to send it on around the world. You receive 10 percent.

You may, of course, wonder why you’ve been singled out, but the lure of 10 percent of whatever millions are shooting through, is a persuasive one.

The bottom line is that the money transfer tax doesn’t exist and the money will be stolen. By getting into the loop you’ll be rendering it squeaky clean for the recipient.

Ronald Harvey turns out to be “Michael” with a distinctive African accent. The scam has nothing to do with the Oldham workwear firm.