Would-be holidaymakers caught up in the collapse of Thomas Cook have been targeted by cruel scammers.
Yesterday morning the 178-year-old travel company went bust, casting 9,000 people in the UK - a further 21,000 abroad - out of work.
As well as leaving hundreds of thousands of people stuck overseas, the collapse left many customers who had booked holidays out of pocket, Plymouth Herald reported .
Now those same people are reportedly being targeted by phone scammers trying to swindle them out of money.
Have you been affected by the Thomas Cook refund scam? Email webnews@trintiymirror.com
Scam warnings have been issued and widely shared across Facebook and Twitter after several people received the refund phone calls despite not having a holiday booked with Thomas Cook.
One user wrote on Twitter: "Thomas Cook refund agents just rang. If I would give my bank details they will arrange immediate refund of my holiday.
"Only problem is I have not booked a Thomas Cook holiday. Some people will stop at nothing in their scam attempts."
Another person reported the scam attempt in a Facebook post that was shared almost 60,000 times.
They wrote: "Just had a phone call from 'Thomas Cook refund agent' going to give me a refund on the holiday I have purchased (no I haven't) just need my card details and 3 digit number on the back to refund me....FFS....this is disgusting.. people have lost their jobs and livelihoods and people are already scamming."
The scam was quickly picked up by the Take Five campaign, which attempts to stop frauds by informing the public.
They wrote on Twitter: "Criminals will use Thomas Cook going into liquidation as a cover story to scam you out of your money.
"Criminals will attempt to get individuals to disclose personal or financial information, which they will then use for their own fraudulent purposes."
From Monday, September 30, the Civil Aviation Authority will set up a service to handle any refund claims.
Those who think they are in line for a refund can get updates at thomascook.caa.co.uk
