A CON artist who claimed they were from Microsoft convinced a young Bradford on Avon man to pay more than £2,500 to get rid of a computer virus.

The victim, who is in his 20’s, received a call from the con artist who told him that his computer was infected with a vrius.

He advised to download some software onto the computer which allowed the person on the phone to access the computer.

The victim was convinced to attend the local post office and make a £2,550 payment via Moneygram. This ended up being a fraudulent call and the young man has been scammed of the money.

A police spokesman said: “Scammers often pretend to be from legitimate, well known, national or global companies like banks or utilities providers. If in doubt, hang up and phone the company yourself, using a phone number from their official website, yellow pages or letter-headed correspondence from them.”

This happened on April 4.