A man from Ashford has lost almost £21,000 after being tricked into allowing a fraudster to access his internet banking.

Cybercrime detectives are now warning people to beware of the scam being carried out by online offenders in the county.

The offender posed as an employee from the victim’s broadband provider, who tricked him into giving the caller remote access to his computer.

They claimed they were doing tests, and insisted he logged into his online bank account to steal the money.

A similar scam was reported in Folkestone where remote access was granted to a man’s laptop to someone claiming to be from his broadband provider.

He lost £14,000 and due to the nature of the scam he will not get the money back.

In Maidstone, a man gave remote access to a caller who said to be from his broadband provider.

They told him his account had been hacked and had to carry out actions on his laptop to protect him.

He allowed them access and lost £4,850.

So far detectives are aware of 45 people who have fallen victim to this fraud.

In total they have lost in the region of £128,000.

Detective Inspector Annie Clayton of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: "Remote access software unfortunately gives fraudsters a wealth of new opportunities by which they can trick people, and their targets are usually those who are elderly, vulnerable or both.

"A current trend is for victims to be sent an automated message stating that their router has been compromised. Please do not respond to this message but instead contact your broadband provider directly for advice.

"These fraudsters are trying to make people unwittingly grant them access to their computer often stating they have been hacked, their computer has a virus or their internet is not performing as well as it should.

"Do not allow a caller to have remote access to their computer. Also be aware that should an internet provider call you, they will have no need whatsoever to access your bank details. Protect yourself and never give out this information."

For more information about the latest scams and frauds visit Action Fraud.