This morning I was composing an SMS when another message popped up on the screen 'My name is Richard and I bought (it did say but I can't recall) from you……. '. I cancelled my SMS to read and respond to the message only to find that it had not been retained on my phone. As I have only sold items on Home Workshop I attempted to put out an appeal in the 'Long Shot' category of the site explaining what had happened and asking if 'Richard' was out there to contact me again.

Very helpfully, I received an email from the moderator of the HWS site informing me that this would have been a scam. "Hi Chris, they is an old system that is used to push emergency broadcasts to phone system and will not be stored on the phone. It sounds like a scam as most people won't send these messages and they have got the number from the site due to the fact people need to be able to use it. Sorry they is not much we can do to stop these type of people and sorry to hear you dropped a SMS just to find out it was a waste of time."

I am very grateful to HWS for contacting me directly and place this incident on record as a warning to others who may be caught out in a similar way to me.