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M. T. writes: I received mailshots from First Post Racing of Newport, South Wales, saying that I could make money from betting, so I decided that I would find out more.

It asked for £100 to be paid to the Racing Tipsters' Association, which is supposed to hold this as a bond*. People in the racing industry have never heard of this association. Its phone is answered by a machine and messages receive no response. Letters to the association receive no reply either. I wrote to Martyn Fisher, who signs First Post Racing's letters, but he also did not reply.

TIPSTERS are two a penny. They all promise you a fortune and First Post Racing is no exception. It claims its Profit Manager Millennium computer software has been making money for eight years in a row - though my guess is that this means First Post has been selling it at a profit, rather than making money from tips.

First Post enthusiastically claims: 'Profit Manager Millennium has rocked the betting industry. The Racing Tipsters' Association has warned that in general circulation, Profit Manager Millennium could spell the end of horse racing in the UK.'

The bottom line is that First Post will give you the tips its computer generates in return for a third of your profits. All you have to do is send £100 as a 'holding deposit' to the Racing Tipsters' Association in King's Lynn, Norfolk.

First Post's mailshots include a letter from the association confirming that its tips have produced profits. And, better still, losses are covered by something called the 'Punters' Protection Scheme'.

I have tried three times to contact the Racing Tipsters' Association, and like you I have found that it is a very shy organisation. It has attracted no publicity, inside or outside racing circles, and its address in King's Lynn is a maildrop. Letters and calls from me have gone unanswered, just like your own. You might almost conclude that the association does not exist.

Similarly, First Post Racing and its boss Martyn Fisher would not talk to me, though in Newport he is well known, not to say notorious. Fisher, 38, has run a string of failed, corrupt or cheating businesses. In the early Nineties, he sold sex aids and abandoned his offices in Cardiff owing thousands of pounds in rent.

Fisher was later given a 12 month suspended prison sentence for selling pills that he claimed would increase penis size. They turned out to be Vitamin C tablets. The court noted that he also sold a non-existent get-rich-quick book for £20.

Fisher's next venture was more dangerous. He imported and sold a designer drug called gamma hydroxy butyrate, popularly known as GBH. Through a legal technicality, he could be convicted only of selling an unlicensed medicine. The court fined him £2,000.

Later, Fisher set up Nationwide List Brokers, which warned people that their fax machines would be flooded with advertising messages unless they paid to be taken off the circulation list.

There were also projects such as his Magidial gadget, which supposedly allowed people to make free phone calls, and his Jammer, which was supposed to make fruit machines pay out.

After reading this, you may be under the impression that I think First Post Racing and the Racing Tipsters' Association are nothing more than a scam.

And you would be right. Fisher is a crook and a fraudster. He should be stopped, now.