Karen Smith says the alarm bells began ringing when her 17-year-old son Adam received a letter from car insurance company Direct Line telling him his policy had been cancelled –– despite making no such request.

He immediately contacted the firm to query the letter and was told that a man had contacted Direct Line wanting to cancel the policy and to refund the money into a new account because he had changed his bank account.

Said Karen, of Rainworth Water Road: "Luckily, for us they can only transfer the money into the account it came from so they couldn't do it. He's only been driving a few months and its around £1,700 for his policy, which is quite a substantial amount."

Neither Direct Line nor police have been able to track down the impostor as he gave no details of his own bank account over the phone and the number was withheld.

Said Karen: "We really don't know how many other people have had this happen to them or how many other people's information he has got.

"We're normally very cautious and shred anything with personal details on them, if anything I'm too cautious really, so we aren't sure how he got the details."