You have got to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on Dunedin man George Bulleid.
The 100-year-old Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village resident said a man rang his apartment on Monday and asked for his bank account details, claiming he had $6000 to deposit from Prime Minister John Key.
But Mr Bulleid was not born yesterday. He told the man his call was a waste of time because the prime minister was his mate and he already had his account details.
''The whole thing was crazy and I treated it as such.''
Mr Bulleid suspected the call was from overseas.
It was about the fifth scam call he had received and had ''a bit of fun with''.
''[I] tag them along and say 'I'll go and have a look for the figures' and put [the receiver] down and forget about it.''
He contacted the Otago Daily Times because he was concerned someone could fall for the scam. If something sounded too good to be true then it probably was, he said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Key said the Prime Minister was not trying to give $6000 to Mr Bulleid and it was a scam.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment consumer protection team manager Mark Hollingsworth said the scam had been around in various forms for several years.
The scammers sought personal information, including banking details, under the guise of depositing a sum of money into the person's account.
''This is a scam. There will be no deposit and scammers will use your personal information for their own gain. People who receive such a call should hang up immediately.''
