The South Wales Evening Post recently reported two very different scams happening around the Swansea area.

The first involved fake ‘missed delivery’ cards being put through people’s letter boxes informing them that ‘Royal Mail’ had tried to deliver a parcel. Of course, Royal Mail knew nothing about it.

Householders were instructed to telephone an 0208 number and pay a processing and delivery fee of £10 by credit card – at which point you might have smelt a rat, but many didn’t.

Some who fell for the scam were also landed with a telephone bill of £45.

The other scam involved e-mails allegedly sent out from a well-known Swansea hotel asking people who’d made reservations for their credit card details – which, of course, the hotel would never do.

Scams are becoming more sophisticated. Last week, a writer friend received an e-mail from his mobile phone provider informing him his August bill was more than £400. He normally pays £18!

In a panic, he called the phone number on the e-mail and went through the identical procedure he normally did. Even the automatic female voice instructions about what buttons to press were the same.

After he’d waited in a queue for five minutes, the female voice suggested he left his phone number and 4-digit pass code and he would be called back.

So, he did as suggested. It was only when he took a closer look at the phone bill that he realised it had a slightly different heading to previous bills – and the phone number was also different.

He immediately phoned his actual mobile provider, explained what had happened and was horrified to be told that the e-mail he’d received was a scam.

He was assured that no one had tried to use his phone and was given a new 4-digit code. But . . . although he’s no fool, he was a victim of scammers.

So be aware. They’re everywhere!