A PENSIONER targeted by telephone fraudsters is warning other residents to be on their guard.

John Maloney, 72, of Weymouth, says he was ‘lucky’ he didn’t fall for the scam after he was contacted by someone posing as a representative from telecoms company TalkTalk.

Telephone money scams are a growing problem and earlier this year Dorset Police said residents in the county had lost over £1m to fraudsters in the past 12 months.

The force has stepped up efforts to warn people of potential threats, urging residents to ‘Hang Up on Fraudsters’.

TalkTalk has apologised to Mr Maloney and said he had been targeted in a “sophisticated banking fraud”.

Mr Maloney said: “I received a phone call from a lady who claimed to be from TalkTalk. She said we had a low frequency line for our broadband. She said she could help with the problem and asked if I had a laptop available in front of me. I don’t know whether she wanted me to go into my bank account.

“I didn’t have a laptop in front of me so she left me a phone number to call. I phoned back the next day but I couldn’t get through.

“I phoned TalkTalk direct and spoke to their security people. They said there wasn’t a problem with the broadband and that the call was definitely a scam call.

“They told me that if the lady calls again I should break off the call immediately.”

Mr Maloney added: “I was quite lucky not to get caught up in it all. It’s easily done.

“I’ve had scam calls about the internet before but nothing like this. They are getting quite clever.

“TalkTalk was very concerned about it and said they would monitor my account to make sure the line in clear.”

A TalkTalk spokesman: “This is a sophisticated banking fraud and we are sorry that Mr Maloney has been affected. Sadly scams like this are a growing problem for all companies.

“We take our customers’ security seriously, although we know a small number of customers are being targeted by phone scammers, using a limited amount of customer data that was accessed illegally at the end of last year.

“Although no bank account details were stolen, we urge anybody who is a victim of this type of scam to contact their bank as quickly as possible. We would also like to remind customers we will never call and ask them to download software onto their computer on an unplanned call.”