A WEST Devon woman is warning people to be aware after she received a scam phone call from someone purporting to be from BT.

Karen Gorton, from Yelverton, said she had a phone call from a lady claiming she was from BT and who was trying to gain access to her computer.

Mrs Gorton said: ‘It was a foreign lady who said she was from BT. She said hackers had tried to get on to my computer and asked me to log on to my computer so she could gain access.

‘I knew it was a scam because I’ve got Sky broadband and my telephone is with Sky. I’m always quite dubious about these kind of things and I had just watched a TV programme about scammers so it was in the back of my mind.

‘But, people may think because BT own the phone lines, that it could be real, or vulnerable people could fall for it.

‘I told the lady I knew it was a scam and she was getting quite aggressive on the phone. I had a message from a friend, who also lives in Yelverton, saying she had the same thing.

‘I just want to warn people to know that it’s happening. If I can stop anyone from getting caught out then that’s great. I would hate for anyone to get scammed.’

Mrs Gorton said that she told the police about the incident and they suggested she block the number or sign up to the telephone preference service which can filter out nuisance calls.

Sgt Dave Anning, from Tavistock Police Station, said: ‘People need to bear in mind that scammers are getting more sophisticated and usually present themselves as one of the big corporations such as BT or Microsoft. ActionFraud has been set up nationally to deal with this type of incident.

‘Police can’t investigate on an individual basis but ActionFraud collates all the incidents in order to investigate.’

For more information or to report such an incident visit www.actionfraud.police. uk