A FERNDOWN man is warning others to look at their credit card statements before paying the requested sum.

Colin Dennard was stunned to find a 500 US dollar charge on his bill, for a company called Naylor SA.

He contacted the company, in Luxembourg, to query the bill and was put through to a call centre in South Africa. They told Mr Dennard they had no record of him, the transaction or his card on their system.

The Halifax, which issued the card, has sent Mr Dennard a form so it can cancel the charge, has stopped the card and is issuing a new one and new PIN.

Mr Dennard, 65, a retired sales and marketing director and father-of-three, said: "I'm puzzled as both my wife and I are very secure, not only with credit cards, but also with PINs," he said.

"This transaction would have been customer not present', thus the last three digits on the reverse side of the card should have been given to accept such a transaction. Clearly this was not done."

Mr Dennard said many people did not look at the detail of their statement before paying the bill and he wanted to raise awareness that even the security-minded could pay for a transaction they did not make.

A Halifax spokesman said it appeared Naylor SA collected cash for gambling sites, and the online system did not require the three-digit security code.

He said they accepted Mr Dennard knew nothing of the charge, and Halifax would claim it from the site.

He said it was unclear how Mr Dennard's details had been gained, but Halifax had stopped the existing credit card, and issued a new card and PIN to Mr Dennard.

Verpakt Management Services, acting for Naylor SA, has told Mr Dennard the company would carry out its own investigation, but was not available for comment.