A POST office worker thwarted two fraud attempts on Saturday when she stopped two elderly people falling victim to a scam which could have cost them thousands of pounds.

The man and woman were both cold called by someone who claimed to work for Microsoft and told them there was a problem with their computers.

If they had sent the fraudsters all the money requested, first a fee of between £100-£300 and then another sum to claim “compensation”, they could both have lost £2,700.

The two victims visited the post office counter at the Co-op in Westbury to send the money via MoneyGram, a money transfer company – but they were saved thanks to the staff member’s quick thinking.

Both had given the fraudsters computer details and the elderly woman had also been persuaded to hand over her driver’s licence details.

The female employee, who didn’t want to be named, said: “It’s quite scary to think the victims were so close to sending such significant amounts of money to someone they had never met.

“They were both quite confused by the whole thing and didn’t quite seem to understand what had happened to them.

“Luckily, because I’ve been doing this job for about 20 years, I had the knowledge not to let them go ahead with the transfer.

“The man said he was going to go to another post office and do it there after I told him I wouldn’t let him, so I called all the local post offices and warned them of the situation.

“It shook us up quite a bit as well to be honest. Hopefully the police can find the suspect and fingers crossed other post office employees in the country are wise to fraudsters’ tricks.”

Police, who were called to the post office and arrived in time to help prevent the woman victim sending any money, are urging people to beware of scammers after the incident.

Their advice includes: hang up the phone when a call is uninvited, never divulge passwords or pin numbers, never give out bank details over the phone to a cold caller and remember that Microsoft will never call anyone.

The scam works when victims receive a phone call allegedly from Microsoft and are first convinced there is a problem with their computer, then tricked into giving out login details, and finally persuaded to send money to the scammer, through MoneyGram.

In this case, both Westbury victims were told to transfer money to an address in Thailand.

If you suspect this is happening to you, call police on 101.