SIR, I had intended to spare the Herald readers a New Year epistle, apart from a “best wishes to you all for 2014” but then I received a surprising letter offering to make me very rich and my resolution to do good by my fellow readers just vanished.

All my working life I had obeyed my early journalistic mentor’s instruction: ‘Do not reveal a source and do not betray a confidence’ but my transformation came when I received a letter posted in the UK by the friend of an official of a bank in China.

The letter carried only an e-mail address and it asked me not to betray the writer’s confidence in offering me half of a £17m deposit left in the bank by a man bearing my name, who had died in a car accident in China, without leaving a will and without any known relatives.

As I bore the same name, the official could arrange for the money to be divided equally between me and the bank where the money was deposited, as was possible in such circumstances, rather than letting it devolve to the state. But what would I do with that much money at my age, I wondered?

Then I also wondered how many other people in the UK or elsewhere in the world had received a similar letter relating to another unfortunate man bearing their name rather than mine.

Any further temptation was cut short by the letter being shredded by the one who knows best and this sad appeal “What would you have done?” and the space could well have been used in a far better cause like commiserating with those unfortunates affected by the recent storms or on local planning issues - but was it a scam or a missed opportunity?

Happy New Year.

Jack Loftin, Charlton Village Road, Wantage