Last month I had a call from someone who introduced himself as Gary although he had a very strong Indian accent. He said he was ringing from the Visa/MasterCard control centre to let me know that unusual activity had been reported on my internet bank account. I had not noticed any anomalies and I let him continue, after all it was his time he was wasting. Eventually I asked him which account was involved: the one with bank A or the one with bank B. When 'Gary' told me that it was with bank B, my suspicions were confirmed as I have accounts with neither bank. He then asked me whether he should authorise the 'transactions' or be given access my computer to sort out the problem once and for all.

I have no idea whether he wanted to hijack my PC or to get me to pay for a clean out, but it was clear that this was a scam. I told him that he could do whatever he liked as I had an account with neither bank I had mentioned. He immediately hung up.