Graham received a call on his landline.

The lady caller addressed Graham by name and claimed to be from the Telephone Preference Service and knew that Graham was already registered.

She told him that his registration would expire and he needed to be re-registered.

She also knew Graham’s postcode and the fact she knew these details was convincing that she was genuinely calling from the Telephone Preference Service.

But she then passed Graham over to another person for re-registration and that person had a thick accent that made understanding him very difficult and he was far less professional.

He asked Graham for his “pay number”.

Graham asked “What is a pay number?”

“The number on your cheque book or bank statement” was the answer.

Graham now knew this was a scam – no respectable organisation would ask for sort code and account details like this, plus the Telephone Preference Service is free and doesn’t need any re-registration.

Graham told them what he thought of them and put the phone down.

A wise move.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.