There’s a new number we can call if we’re worried we’re about to be hit by a scam.

Dialling 159 on the spot will take us securely to a call handler with our own bank. They can advise us on how to stop the scam before it happens.

It’s easy to remember (it’s a diagonal downward line on our phone keypad). Most of us will use banks that are signed up to the scheme.

Last year, crooks got their hands on more than £470m of our hard-earned cash through scams where they pretended to be a bank or service provider.

The 159 scheme is run by Stop Scams UK. Their advice if we get a call that makes us unsure or nervous is to hang up straight away and dial 159.

Only a crook will try to talk us out of dialling and 159 will never contact us. So if they say that’s who they are then they’re definitely lying.

Most mobile networks are signed up to the stop scams scheme. But if dialling 159 doesn’t take us through to our bank we should find the phone number on our bank card and dial that instead.

Dialling 159 will cost the same as a national rate call, and will be included in most mobile tariffs.