LYDNEY mayor Bill Osborne has had his computer and PayPal account details invaded by scammers, and he wants to warn everyone to be on guard.

In his case he was lucky – although the scammers managed to take money from the internet account for 'anti-virus' software which he did not need, PayPal managed to recover the money and paid him back.

"All I had to pay for was getting my computer cleaned up by Imagitek, but it could have been so much worse. If anyone gets into your computer like this they could do a lot of harm," he said.

"I think it is a public service to make people aware of this and put them on their guard."

In Bill's case the hackers managed to access his account by getting hold of his email address but Imagitek, based in Lydney, says a seemingly friendly phone call is their current method.

"The callers claim to be from one of variety of supposedly professional outfits, with around 65 per cent pretending to be from Microsoft themselves, and state that the customers' personal or business computers and notebooks are infected with viruses and are at risk," says a spokesman.

"The concern is that not only are some of these unscrupulous companies and characters convincing trusting people around the globe to allow access to their systems but some are also then pressurised to part with cash and in some reported cases, many hundreds of pounds.

"These calls are a scam and have been occurring for the past few years, but even now it is disturbing to find out just how many good people within the Dean are being tricked by these quite convincing fraudulent callers.

"Trading Standards officers have issued a warning about one of the firms – known as Supportonclick – who cold-call computer users and claim to be a representative from Microsoft. Their tactic is to convince the user that something is wrong with their PC with either viruses or software issues and then persuade them to purchase software or, for a price, deal with an 'agent' that they do not actually need.

"The fraudsters use leading, generalised questioning techniques and will normally request you run some standard commands within the RUN option, which often has the effect of convincing the user that their system is indeed infected. The fraudsters have already obtained some personal information, which obviously aids in the trusting of such organisations.

"We are greatly concerned by these scam calls. We like to look after our customers and do not like to see them ripped off by fraudsters."