A new scam is making its way around the country, with one Tauranga local catching on to it before it was too late.

A local Tauranga pharmacy worker – who doesn't want to be named – says she received a phone call on the work line on Thursday afternoon.

She says the caller asked for her using her full name – first, middle and last – and claimed they were from her bank, BNZ.

She says the caller sounded either Asian or Indian and knew that she currently had her house on the market. She has listed her house on Trade Me and is doing the sale privately – as she has done in the past.

The caller was claiming he was ringing to see if she needed help with the selling process and if she knew the process.

She says it was at that stage she ‘smelled a rat' and red flags were raised.

'I said 'well actually it's not a very good time. I'm at work at the moment and I don't quite understand what the phone call is about'. I've sold plenty of properties and I know what the process is.

'I was more baffled by the fact they knew my work number. The only people that know my work number are important places like the dentist, bank and obviously family and things like that, but it's not Google knowledge.

'I hung up and I wish I'd got the number because it was a mobile number. I then rung the bank straight away and they had a look and they said no one had called me from the bank.”

She says the bank said her phone call sounded really odd and were forwarding it on to the fraud team.

'My advice for anybody else would be to get the number, ask for their details and say 'I'll call you back later', and then phone the bank straight away.”