You’ve probably seen warnings about the so-called ‘Can you hear me?’ phone scam said to be set to hit the UK – but it appears this con is an urban myth.

The supposed trick has its origins in the US and apparently involves potential victims getting calls on their mobile phone from someone asking “can you hear me?”

The story goes that when the call recipient replies “yes” their voice is recorded and this can then be used as a verbal contract to prove the person authorised a charge or purchase.

An alert about the fraud has been issued by CPR Call Blocker, makers of call blocking devices in the US and UK, which says it has seen this scam rise in frequency in America.

It claims it’s just a matter of time before fraudsters start using it in the UK.

The problem with the warning is there doesn’t appear to be any actual victims of the con.

American fact-checking site Snopes has debunked the story and written: “Primarily, we haven’t yet been able to identify any scenario under which a scammer could authorise charges in another person’s name simply by possessing a voice recording of that person saying ‘yes’ without also already possessing a good deal of personal and account information for that person, and without being able to reproduce any other form of verbal response from that person.

“Moreover, even if such a scenario existed, it’s hard to imagine why scammers would need to utilise an actual audio recording of the victim’s repeating the word ‘yes’ rather than simply providing that response themselves.

“As far as we know, phone companies, utilities, and credit card issuers don’t maintain databases of voice recordings of their customers and use them to perform real-time audio matching to verify identities during customer service calls.

“In all the news reports we found, interviewees merely reported having been asked the common question (‘Can you hear me?’) but did not aver that they themselves had fallen prey to scammers.”

Snopes says it has not found any cases where people has been scammed and concluded: “The ‘Can you hear me?’ scam for now seems to be more a suggestion of a hypothetical crime scheme than a real one that is actually robbing victims of money.”

So it seems there is little evidence to support the scam warnings being taken seriously at this time.

The advice is if you don’t recognise a number on your phone, don’t answer the call.

And if you do take a call that is suspicious, such as a stranger asking if you can hear them or trying to get you to say yes to something, just hang up straight away.

You can report dubious calls to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040.