RESIDENTS in Blaenau Gwent are being warned about a cold-calling telephone scam which offers to get compensation for people who have supposedly been missold payment protection insurance (PPI) on a previous loan .

The council’s trading standards team have received several complaints about a caller who asks the consumer to purchase a UKash voucher to cover an administration fee, and so far these have ranged from £89 to £245.

It’s explained that once this payment has been made someone will visit the householder with a cash payment from the PPI company.

The caller will phone back at a later date to ask for the Ukash voucher number, and once this number has been given it will be cashed online and the consumer will never see the promised refund of PPI money, and will also lose the money paid for the voucher.

Ukash vouchers are a payment mechanism, and terminals can be found in local post offices, corner shops and petrol stations.

This method of payment is designed for online transactions where a consumer does not have a bank account or credit card . Once bought these vouchers instantly have a cash value, therefore once they have been handed over to another person it is not retrievable.

Anyone who receives such a call should not disclose any personal information, should end the call immediately and contact the Citizens’ Advice Consumer Service on 08454 04 05 06 or Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.