BT has warned local residents to be on their guard against bogus calls which end with a request for a bank account number and sort code.

Wellington Weekly News sports writer Barry Knott had a phone call on Wednesday afternoon from a very plausible ‘BT’ fraudster.

“He claimed he was Harry Hayes and he offered me discounts on my broadband and telephone bill in general – which all sounded very nice,” he said.

“However, I hadn’t asked for any such call and he ended a five-minute conversation by saying that in order to receive the discounts he needed to have my bank account number and sort code.

“Now I know for a fact that there is no way BT would ask for this over the phone. I reported the conversation to BT who said this was very common.

“The problem is that such calls appear very genuine, with some humour thrown in, to obviously relax you.”