RESIDENTS in Southminster are being warned to be careful of unsolicited calls after a spate of scam calls in the village.

Scammers, claiming to be from BT, have been phoning homes in the village in an attempt to get people to hand over their router numbers.

These router numbers would give the scammers a chance to access your computer and personal details.

One victim of the scam calls was Diane Burrows, of Burnham Road in Southminster.

Her and her husband, Robert, received two calls in two days from the scammers, but luckily were wise to the scam.

Diane said: “We had a phone call one day which I took. I didn’t like the sound of it so put the phone down.

“The next day I took the phone call and handed it over to my husband and what they said was that there was illegal activity going through our router, which would normally scare people.

“Then they asked for our router number so they could run some checks. Well that was ridiculous because they should know that already if they were actually from BT.

“My husband asked for a phone number to ring back on which they gave. It was a 0800 number and when we tried it, it didn’t exist.

“It was obviously a scam. We phoned BT and they confirmed it was a scam.

“They are trying to get into people’s computers and their personal information. It is very worrying.

“I think to be a good citizen you need to let people know that this sort of thing is going on. They are trying to defraud people and that is not right.”

A spokesman for BT confirmed that the phone calls were scams, and offered the following advice to help prevent people from falling victim to the scammers.

The spokesman said: “Be suspicious of unsolicited calls relating to a security/system problem, even if they claim to be from a respected company.

“If a caller claims to be from BT, ask them to give you an 0800 number that you can get back to them on. You can then call BT on 0800 800150 to confirm the call is genuine.

“Ask security questions about your account before continuing the call, if the caller can’t answer, they are not legitimate.

“Don’t agree to sign up for anything and under no circumstances allow the caller to take control of your computer system as this allows them to gain access to your personal files and harvest information.

“Do not go to a website, type anything into a computer, install software or follow any other instruction from someone who calls out of the blue.

“If you suspect you’ve been a victim of a phone scam or are concerned about your accounts security, please get in touch with us so that we can help.”