Consumers are being conned over the phone by fraudsters claiming to be calling from Consumer Direct.

The callers pretend they are carrying out a survey on behalf of the Government-funded consumer advice organisation and ask their victims for personal and financial information.

However, Consumer Direct said the callers have no connection with it, and their intention may be to use the information for identity theft, to run up bills or commit crimes using stolen details.

Consumer Direct said although it does carry out surveys in order to monitor its performance, it will always write first so that the call is expected. The consumer watchdog said it also would never ask people for financial or personal information and warned people that they should never pass on these kind of details to any cold callers either over the phone or via email.

It said if someone has already done this, either through this scam or any other, they should contact their bank as soon as possible and review their credit card and bank account statements to see if there have been any unauthorised transactions.

If anyone is concerned that they have received one of these fake phone calls, they can call Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 to verify the situation.