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Unsolicited calls to my home really get on my nerves. One way to tackle this irritation is to sign up to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). This should cut out the majority of unsolicited phone calls to your home or business. Also, I ask the companies I deal with not to call me or write to me about anything other than the management of my account. In other words, no sales calls or junk mail, please! However, the TPS won't stop calls from dodgy companies or criminal gangs that are out to empty your pockets. For example, one scam that appears to have surfaced in the UK involves crooks posing as the "Fraud Detection Department" of VISA or MasterCard. The caller explains that VISA has spotted an unusual spending pattern on your account, and would like to confirm that your card is still in your possession. The caller then asks you for your card number, plus the three-digit security code on the back of your card (known as the card verification value, or CVV2 code). Armed with this information, plus your name and address, the fraudsters then go on a spending spree with your plastic. Yikes! This scam appears to have arrived from the US, where cardholders have been relieved of millions of dollars via similar stings. The simple way to handle these calls, plus other variations on this con, is not to reveal any information about yourself or your account. Tell the caller that you will call your card issuer using the "lost or stolen" or customer services number on the reverse of your card. Hang up, without saying another word, and then make a quick call to your credit-card company to see if the fraud warning was bogus or genuine. The second scam appears to be a phone scam but is, in fact, an email spoof designed to waste your time. It plays on the public's ignorance of how telephone systems work, and our desire to spread "urban legends". The trick goes something like this: you receive an email or warning from someone that warns of a "friend of a friend" who has been hit by a phone scam. Typically, the warning tells of a recorded message that congratulates you on winning an exotic holiday. After pressing "9" to claim your "prize", you are connected to a premium-rate line that charges £20 a minute. Even if you hang up straight away, you will be billed for a minimum of £100. Stay on the line for the full thirteen minutes and you lose £260. Another variation describes a mobile-phone scam where a "missed call" message invites you to call a number that begins "0709 020...". Call this number and you pay £50 a minute for the duration of your call. As urban-legends website Snopes confirms, these are spoof emails, designed to play on our fears of being ripped off. ICSTIS, which regulates premium-rate telephone lines in the UK, has confirmed that these rumours are untrue. The most expensive premium-rate (090) numbers charge £1.50 a minute. Thus, these scams are nothing more than hoaxes – it's the emails themselves that are the trick! By forwarding them to everyone in your address book, you are wasting your time and that of hundreds of other people. So, the next time that you receive a weird email of this type, check Snopes first - or just delete it. Otherwise, you join the growing list of gullible hoaxers! More: Ten Ways To Get Ripped Off | Beware Of Criminal Cashback! | Find your perfect plastic.