Eight in 10 adults received a suspicious message in the form of a text, recorded message or live phone call over the past three months, an Ofcom survey found.

       Some 71 per cent of 2,000 quizzed had a dubious text - and for 44 per cent of these it was at least weekly. Only half deleted the message or blocked the sender.

       Ofcom also found older people were often targeted by landline.

       Six in 10 of those aged 75 and over reported receiving a potential scam call to their home phone.

       More than half of them had such a call at least once a week.

       Two per cent - a million people - followed the scammers' instructions.

       Ofcom urged people to put the phone down "and don't click on links in texts you're unsure about.