I'd not heard anything about this one, and I just had a phone call so now I'm doing my bit to make people aware.

A woman with a very thick Indian accent called claiming to be from the building society I use and was calling about overcharges on my account that I would be refunded plus an extra percentage from the government.

*insert alarm bells - I know my building society's head office is based in Newcastle and they do everything locally*

They knew my address, but asked me to confirm my date of birth, but they misheard and continually quoted it back to me as the 15th. *more alarm bells*

They asked for a card number to confirm, and by this time I've got alarm bells going off everywhere, but I choose the one that has the lowest balance and the one that's in my name only.

Apparently the Department of Fair Trading will call me tomorrow to confirm all of this, and they will call my mobile. *more alarm bells - government agencies don't tend to call on Saturdays*

Then I'm told that she needs to get her supervisor. No hold music. *even more alarm bells*

So the very first thing I do when I get off the phone is to call my building society myself - already had their page up on my browser before the call ended.

It's a well-known scam that's going on (she said mainly in Sydney, but they're getting calls from all over), but it's not one I'd heard about so I'm making it known.

My card is now "hot" and I'm getting a new one and a new PIN issued, and I've emptied the account of the sum total of $30 that was in there.

I kept thinking that I *should* have asked them to call me back in 15 and done my own checks - but all's well that ends well!

BW