I have mentioned about this kind of scam previously as this can happen to anyone but mainly targeting parents as you can see from the message below.

One of our my coordinator's advised me that a member in Walnut Tree Lane had been the intended victim of a scam via mobile phone -

"...I recently received a text message purporting to come from my son informing me that he had dropped his phone in water and was no longer working. He gave me another number and asked me to change my records which I did.

I have now spoken to my son who informs me this is a scam and I should delete the message and number immediately. The number given was 07546 194443..."

Before you do any changes please make contact with your son/daughter/niece or nephew before acting on the information you receive using another phone if possible to check if they have changed their number.

A warning:

There have been a recent increase in reports of "number spoofing". This is when scammers change their caller ID to disguise their identity from the person they are calling.

Many phone handsets now let you see the number of the person calling before you answer. This feature is known as Caller ID, as this helps you to only take the callers you wish to converse with.

However, with "spoofing callers" they deliberately change the telephone number and/or name relayed as the Caller ID information. They do this to hide their identity or to try and mimic the number of the real company or person., which has nothing to do with the real person/company.

Identity thieves who want to steal sensitive information such as your bank account or log in details sometimes use spoofing to pretend they are calling from your bank or credit card company.

You may be aware that spoofed numbers can come from across the world and account for most of our nuisance calls .

So please be wary of any phone calls or text messages that you do not recognise.