JENNIFER Booth was delighted when she was told she had won an all-expenses paid holiday to Florida.

But joy turned to suspicion for the Oakes mother as the mystery caller asked for her credit card details.

And it turns out 50-year-old Mrs Booth has probably been targeted by fraudsters running a nationwide scam. She is believed to be the first person to speak out to warn others.

The fraudsters claim to work for Barclaycard and Mrs Booth’s advice to other potential victims is simple.

“Just put the phone down,’’ she said.

Mrs Booth received the suspicious call at 4.40pm on Tuesday.

“It was someone saying they were calling from Barclaycard Visa and claiming I had been entered into a draw because I’d used my card,’’ she said. “They said I had won a holiday in Florida, staying in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

“He said that Barclaycard were picking up all the expenses – for flights, transfers, hotels and clothes.”

Mrs Booth – who is a full-time carer for her son Anthony, 33, who has special needs – couldn’t believe her luck.

“I would certainly have liked to go to Florida,’’ she said. “It would have been absolutely fantastic.”

The caller then put Mrs Booth through to his ‘senior manager’.

She said: “He congratulated me and then asked to check some details. He knew my name, address, postcode and phone number and just asked me to confirm the details.”

But Mrs Booth became suspicious when the man asked for details of her credit card.

She said: “He told me that, in order to complete the process, he needed the seven-digit ‘reference number’ on the back of my card. I told him that was the security number and I would definitely not give it over the phone.

“I told him that if it was a choice between giving him that number or losing the holiday, I would lose the holiday.”

Mrs Booth then phoned her credit card company.

She said: “I rang Barclaycard straight away because I was quite shocked. They told me that the scam is ongoing and their fraud department is working on it but they haven’t sent out any warnings to their customers.”

Mrs Booth then rang the police.

She said: “They weren’t interested because it’s not clear whether this is a local case. They said it was nothing to do with them which worried me.”

Mrs Booth warned other people not to fall for the scam.

She said: “A lot of people could be in the same position as me and they might give out their security number without thinking.”

Mrs Booth said that both of the suspected fraudsters had strong accents.

She said: “The first man sounded like he was in his 20s or 30s and had a strong south Asian accent. The ‘senior manager’ sounded older, maybe in his 40s, and also had a strong south Asian accent.”

A Barclaycard spokesman said: “We are made aware of many different scams and have a good track record of working with the relevant authorities when we become aware of a new scam.

“We would advise all your readers to do exactly as Mrs Booth has done in this case. Never give information to anyone who contacts you and asks for information about you account.”

However, the company declined to answer three questions on the matter:

How long has Barclaycard been aware of this scam?

Why have warning letters not been sent out to customers?

Does the company know how these fraudsters got the personal details of Barclaycard customers?

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “We would only be able to investigate such a call if it was clear that the callers were from the region. In this case, as no actual offence has been committed, this is not possible at this time.”

The spokesman praised Mrs Booth for hanging up.

He said: “Mrs Booth has done the right thing in this situation by terminating the phone call and not giving any of her banking details to the caller purporting to be from Barclaycard.

“As with most situations, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So our advice in such circumstances would always be to end the call and contact your bank to check the validity of the initial caller.”