MP Janet Anderson is urging women to avoid investing in a quick-money scheme which appears to offer thousands of pounds in return.

The Darwen Labour MP warns against getting involved in the Hearts for Women scheme, now operating in Darwen.

Women are asked to invest a sum of money with the promise that they will get thousands back. Her warning comes just months after TV celebrity Cilla Black made a similar plea to ignore the scheme.

Mrs Anderson said: "Hundreds if not thousands of women around the country have lost a great deal of money. There is no guarantee that women will get the rewards they are promised."

The Darwen meetings were brought to her attention after a 40-year-old woman from Blacksnape became suspicious of the scheme. The married woman, who did not want to be identified, was asked to join Hearts for Women by a neighbour who had already handed over £750 with the promise of a £6,000 return.

She said: "My neighbour was 'guaranteed' a return of £6,000 which sounds too good to be true and indeed it is. Each woman must then recruit six new members who each pay £750 for a 'heart' or a share. In return they are supposed to receive £6,000 too.

"It relies on the continual recruitment of new members. Each new member must recruit a further six members in order to receive the same return on her initial investment. Members who join at the start find it easy to recruit but women who join further down the line find it increasingly difficult until the area becomes completely 'saturated'. The new recruits dry up and the scheme crumbles."

Borough trading standards chief Chris Allen, said: "Any scheme which promises rewards for recruiting new members is bound to fail due to the difficulty in recruiting new people. It is a mathematical impossibility for each new entrant to be able to recruit sufficient people as the numbers mount up."