The Office of Fair Trading is warning consumers to be on their guard against a telephone scammers posing as OFT officials, offering to reclaim bank or payment protection insurance rebates for them.
As part of the scam, people have been conned into believing that this service requires an upfront fee to be paid by money transfer or that they need to disclose their bank account details.
The OFT said some consumers have been asked to pay between £100 and £200.
A statement from the OFT said: “These callers have no connection with the OFT. The OFT do not ask people for money over the telephone. If you receive a telephone call from the OFT asking for money, this is a scam and you should not pay. For further advice contact Consumer Direct.”
The organisation first alerted consumers to the scam as far back as August 2007 but has seen a sharp rise in complaints in recent weeks.
