A FAMILY flower shop has been inundated with hundreds of angry phone calls as part of an international phone cloning scam.

Staff say a group of Indian fraudsters posing as TalkTalk staff are believed to be asking people for bank details, using The Flower Shop's phone number to disguise their identity.

The Caversham florist is taking more than 100 calls every day from angry members of the public, claiming they have received as many as 15 missed calls from the same number.

Denika Potter, who has worked at the shop for 13 years, said: "Since last Friday we started getting phone calls from people saying they had missed calls from us.

"When they look at their call history, it is our number that comes up. We have to answer every call so we pick up the phone in the normal way, but they are confused when it is us and not TalkTalk.

"It took us a while to work it out. We have tried to explain to people what is happening. Our number has been cloned by a company pretending to be TalkTalk and they are using our line to give them a legitimate number to hide behind.

"If people see a real number I suppose they are more likely to pick up the phone or call them back. They are hoping that one or two people will fall into the net.

"We believe that when they are getting ahold of people they are asking for online bank log-in information and other account details."

Ms Potter explained how the constant calls were disturbing her staff and although the majority of people understood they were being hit by scammers, some have been abusive.

The Flower Shop has been a part of Caversham for more than 40 years and the current owners have been in charge for nearly half of that time.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau is investigating the case and Ms Potter is likely to be updated on Monday.

She added: "We have already had around 800 calls and we are a small business so it is a real nuisance.

"It has had a massive affect on us. We have to answer every call and it is the same line we use for taking business.

"They have people looking into it and we are told it is an international operation. It sounds like it is coming from an Indian call centre.

"It has been hugely disruptive. The majority of people are lovely and very apologetic, but when you get 10 or 15 missed calls from the same number you are bound to get a few people who start swearing down the phone at you. We have been sworn at quite a few times."