Clever phone conmen swindled a Huddersfield couple out of £4,700.

They pretended to Paul Hirst, of Golcar, that they were dealing with problems with his phone and broadband service.

But after SIX HOURS on the phone, they managed to persuade him to give them his bank details on the pretext of paying him £200 compensation - only to steal from the account.

“I feel so stupid,” said Mr Hirst, 58, who lives with wife Linda.

“But they were very, very clever.

“They had my name, my number and the fact that I have a TalkTalk account”.

The swindle, which is now being investigated by West Yorkshire Police, is one of several around the country where people have been conned out of thousands of pounds.

An elderly couple had £8,700 stolen by scammers pretending to be from TalkTalk.

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Barbara and Harold Manley from Rochester, Kent, were left thousands of pounds out of pocket after being conned last month after handing over control of their computer and logging into their online banking account.

It is believed to be part of a huge nationwide scam involving crooks who may have hacked into TalkTalk accounts.

Mr Hirst got the call on Thursday lunchtime and said: “The caller told me he was ringing from TalkTalk and knew my name and number.

“He said there were serious problems with the phone line and broadband and he needed to do checks to clear out any bugs or viruses.

“He kept me on the phone for ages, supposedly checking lots of things, and then offered me compensation for taking up so much time.

“When he said he wanted to transfer £200 into my account I gave him the details. I feel so stupid but he was so clever”.

When Mr Hirst later checked with Yorkshire Bank, he found that £4,720 had been taken out of his account.

“I want others to know and to be on their guard. This is a massive blow for us and I don’t want anyone else falling for this trick”

The matter is being investigated by fraud officers from West Yorkshire Police.

TalkTalk have issued advice about scam phone calls.

A spokesman said: “You should be vigilant about criminals trying to either impersonate TalkTalk or target you for ‘phishing scams’ by phone, email or text.

“We have created a guide to help protect you against such scams.

Over the past year we’ve been working to alert and inform people about phone scams and have sent emails or letters to all customers.

“TalkTalk are the only provider to offer free calling and privacy features allowing you to: block calls from withheld numbers; block the last number that called you; and to see the number for incoming calls.”