Dear Sir,
A scam is being used over the phone by persons of Asian origin whereby they ring and say a payment had been taken out of the bank. In my case at 11 o clock on Saturday morning and  the sum was £49 which was to cover the cost of making sure all unwanted trash calls would be excluded from my phone.
Being a 72 year old lady who is fully aware of scammers targeting older people, I faced up to this person asking them to produce my bank details.. This he refused to do and asked me, to give details about the said contract.
The conversation was very heated and his manner was very intimidating and bullying.
I put the phone down and checked my bank details which were intact. When I rang 1471 to find out who had called the number 001100 came up which I passed on to  Aycliffe Police. They put me through to the fraud department where I made a statement and this is now in the hands of Metropolitan Police to investigate.
I am targeted sometimes up to 3-4 times a day by  Asian speaking people, saying they are doing research for Life Style direct and do I have few minutes to help them. I constantly tell them I do not give any details about my life to anyone via the phone and ask them politely to stop ringing me. I believe these are the same people as I have rung 1471 and a similar number comes up.
Please tell your elderly readers not to give details over the phone about their bank details and lifestyle. I would be interested to know if anyone else has been targeted and had any of these troublesome calls lately.If so they may ring me so that I can forward any more information on to the Police fraud line reference number that was given to me.
Ann Dunn 01325 315861