SHOPS and businesses across the North-East have been put on alert following the discovery of a telephone credit card scam.

An assistant in a Middlesbrough shop inadvertently gave confidential card details over the telephone to a caller. In the half an hour between the store manager finding out and ringing Cleveland Police, the card was used to buy merchandise worth several hundreds of pounds.

Detective Constable Andy King, of the force's fraud squad, said: "We were able to get the bank to put a stop on the card, but it may still be used if shops and businesses fail to run a check on it. And in that case any loss will be down to them."

He added: "Obviously there is someone out there who has thought up a ruse to ring shops and has the bare-faced cheek to try to con credit card details from staff.

"All we want is for people to think before they act, It saves a lot of heartache and trouble in the future.''