SHOPPERS are being warned by a Keighley man to be on the lookout for scam e-mails after he fell foul of one himself.

Eric Holmes, 66, has received six e-mails that appear to be from supermarket chain Morrisons, all saying he has been chosen as the winner of £500 worth of shopping vouchers, and can redeem them by following the instructions on a link.

After following the instructions to claim the vouchers, Mr Holmes realised he had charges added to his mobile phone bill, and is warning other people not to fall for the same scam.

Mr Holmes said: “It asked me all these different questions on each page, and then at the end asked for my phone number.

“When I was going through the links, it got to the terms and conditions page, where in the small print it says that it will charge you £3.75, but in the even smaller print it says this charge is recurring.

“Fortunately, I managed to see that and cancelled it almost immediately, but I had already been charged £3.75 by these scammers.

“Since then, I’ve had another six e-mails offering the same prizes trying to make me fall for it again, but I haven’t even clicked on those links.

“I’m worried a lot of people who aren’t that computer literate might not read the small print and just be thinking about the £500 worth of vouchers, and then might not notice the money going out of their account.”

Mr Holmes said he contacted Morrisons after receiving the e-mails and that it was aware of the scam, but said it was not its responsibility to do anything about it.

He said he will also be contacting Trading Standards.

“Morrisons should do something about it – at least tell their customers about it so they are aware of these e-mails," he added.

“Sometimes these kind of things don’t look right and are clearly fake, but this one really did resemble Morrisons."

While Mr Holmes said he is a regular shopper at his local Morrisons store, and added the e-mails had put him off visiting the supermarket at the moment.

A spokesman for Morrisons said it is aware of these kinds of scams, known as phishing, which are an issue for nearly all retailers and banks.

Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending e-mails claiming to be from reputable companies in order to persuade people to reveal personal information, such as passwords, credit card details and phone numbers, online.

The spokesman added: “There are unscrupulous organisations that are targeting the customers of all the retailers and the banks, looking for their personal information, including their bank account details and phone numbers.

“If you get asked for this information, either by e-mail or by phone, you can be assured it will not be us that will be asking.”