RESIDENTS are being warned to beware of unsolicited mail offering credit, after an elderly woman was duped into calling premium rate phone calls for almost two hours.

The letters invite the named resident to call a "national rate" phone number and then supply personal information, including bank details.

The caller is then asked to call another phone number and give more details before being given yet another number to ring.

One elderly woman in Hartlepool made four phone calls and was only informed it was a premium rate number towards the end of the last call when she had spent about 100 minutes on the phone.

The next day the women received a letter and an application form to join a credit service at a cost of £50, which she declined.

Malcolm Graham, Hartlepool Borough Council senior trading standard officer said: "Scams such as this one are usually aimed at people who find it difficult to obtain credit, so any victim is usually someone who can least afford to lose money.

"As the object of the scam is to get people to use premium rate phone numbers, any lure can be used - in this case it was providing credit.

"BT publishes most premium rate prefixes in the front of the telephone book. Always check any suspicious numbers against this list.