PEMBROKESHIRE residents are warned to be on their guard as scam callers claiming to be from BT are currently doing the rounds.

Colin Smith, aged 75, from Liddeston, received a call on Monday, March 19. He said that the caller asked to speak to the BT account holder before asking for his first name.

When he asked what the call was concerning he was told there was a problem with his BT account which couldn't be disclosed until he told them his first name.

Mr Smith believes that if he had given his name the caller would then have tried to elicit other personal information from him including his account number and payment details.

The clued-up pensioner ended the call before ringing BT to report the bogus caller.

"BT told me there had been no attempt made to call me today and that they would never call and ask to speak to the account holder and then ask for a Christian name," said Mr Smith. "They would never phone you out of the blue and ask to talk about your account."

Gwyneth Lewis from Haverfordwest received a similar call on Wednesday, March 21.

The caller asked her for her debit card number in order to renew her account details.

Mrs Lewis refused to give the information, and the caller became more aggressive.

She contacted BT to check whether the caller was one of their employees.

BT assured her no-one from the company had called her and not to give out her details over the phone.

BT posted the following advice on its website:

"We're aware that some customers are being contacted by individuals fraudulently claiming to be from BT or acting on behalf of BT. This type of fraud is an industry-wide problem that we're actively working to tackle."

The company advised customers to be suspicious of unsolicited calls relating to a security or system problem and to never give out personal information, such as credit card or bank details, to an unsolicited caller.

You should not type anything into a computer, install software, visit any websites or follow any other instruction unless you are confident that the call is genuine and under no circumstances let the caller take control of your computer system.