A CARER used knowledge gained on YouTube to stop his neighbour being scammed out of £7,000.

Keith Lawrence, 55, went to the aid of his neighbour, who is 64 and who was being targeted by conmen.

As part of what is known as a refund scam, the tricksters target locations with elderly populations and call at obscure times to catch potential victims off guard.

Keith said: “They called my neighbour at 7am so he assumed there was a serious problem.

“He didn’t have his glasses on and they tried to convince him something went wrong.

“He ended up giving them his credit card number and the three digit security number, which wasn’t ideal.”

Keith, of Tudor Estate, Jaywick, cleared his neighbour’s computer, but whilst doing so, the scammers kept calling his neighbour and this is how Keith recognised the scam.

He added: “From the YouTube videos I have watched, I knew what was going to happen next so, I got my neighbour to answer his phone and go along with what they wanted.

“They asked him if he had taken out money from the bank that they previously requested, he lied and said yes.

“They then wanted him to put the money into two envelopes and send it to an address in Birmingham.”

Keith learned about these scammers and how they operate with the help of two YouTube channels called Scammer Payback and Kitboga.

The channels have more than one million and two million subscribers respectively and their content is educative and entertaining.

In Scammer Payback’s most popular video, he uses an audio altering device, changing his voice to sound like an elderly woman to beat the scammer at his own game.

In the video Scammer Payback refers to Anydesk, a remote desktop application that hackers repurpose to access the computers of potential victims.

Keith, who is a carer for his wife who suffers from epilepsy, said thanks to his intervention, the scammers were left empty handed.

If you have been a victim of a crime, report your case to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 240.