A MAN who believes he received two bogus phone calls from people claiming they were from npower is warning Worcester people to be on their guard.

Simon Cronin fears other householders may give out personal details that could fall into the wrong hands.

He received a phone call from a woman on Friday, June 8, at around 7pm.

"She said she'd like to ask me a few questions," he said.

"I said I didn't want to be bothered by it but she carried on pestering me."

Mr Cronin, of London Road, Worcester, said that the woman asked his age, and then his occupation.

"That automatically got my back up," he said. "What's that got to do with npower? She asked it me twice so I said to ring me back."

The following Monday lunchtime, a man rang Mr Cronin and claimed he was calling from npower. Mr Cronin said when he complained about the attitude of the previous female caller the man put the phone down.

"I was suspicious," said Mr Cronin. "I rang npower's sales department and they said quite categorically there was no one from npower calling my area."

Since the incident Mr Cronin has informed police who have made a record of his complaint.

"I tried to chase up the number after they had rang but the number had been withheld."

Mr Cronin is advising people who encounter any similar incidents to ask the callers to give them their name and number and to say they will call them back.

"If these people are trying to con people into giving them information to set up some kind of consumer base it may be a precursor to certain junk mail coming through," he said.