POLICE in Gloucestershire are warning people to be on their guard after another attempted telephone fraud incident in the county.

Yesterday morning, Thursday, March 8, a 74-year-old woman in Cheltenham received a call from a man who claimed to be from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and told her she was going to be arrested for unpaid taxes.

He claimed to be calling from London but the telephone number showed a Manchester dialling code.

Telephone numbers can easily be spoofed, so there is no guarantee of where the call is coming from.

The man asked her for her National Insurance number but she refused to give it and suspecting this was a bogus call, she hung up and contacted police.

Fraudsters use a variety of ways to contact vulnerable people pretending to be from HMRC.

These include spoofed calls, like the one above, where the offender tries to convince the victim that they owe unpaid tax; voicemails claiming the same and asking the victim to call back, at which point they may be told there is a warrant out for their arrest; and text messages.

On some occasions victims have been told that their debts will be cancelled if they buy large quantities of iTunes gift cards and read the serial numbers over the phone.

This gives the fraudster access to cash without the victim handing it directly to them.

Anyone who gets a call allegedly from HMRC is advised NOT to give any information but to tell the caller to write to them as they have all their personal details but not confirm anything (such as address).

Report the matter to the police and Action Fraud.