SCAMMERS have been using the name and logo of a reputable Dorset business to lure people into handing over hundreds of pounds on the promise of a job.

Bournemouth-based Adido – a digital marketing agency specialising in the travel industry – has been contacted by job-hunters asking what happened to their applications after they handed over the money.

Chief executive Andy Headington said the con artists had posted ads on Facebook promising people an employment opportunity and had then carried on conversations via the messaging platform WhatsApp.

People were asked to log in via a “portal” and buy 500 dollars of the crypto currency Tether to get access to some “exclusive” travel offers.

“We are getting emails from people saying ‘Is this to do with you?’ or ‘Can you let me know what’s happened to my application?’,” he said.

“It’s using our name, which we’ve spent 20 years building up, and our connections to the travel industry to try and con people.

“They’ve taken their time to pick out bits of us to create this convincing looking website.”

The scammers have been impersonating Adido’s genuine website, adido-digital.co.uk “I guess people are losing money somewhere and someone’s making money off our name, neither of which are nice things to happen,” said Mr Headington.

He said he had contacted the owner of the domain names involved and the companies running the services to try and get the scam shut down.

“This is really the only weapon that we have available to us in terms of getting things shut down as, whilst they are using our name, it's not linked to us in any way at all, so we just have to appeal like anyone else would,” he added.

Writing on LinkedIn, Mr Headington said: “Fraud online is a serious thing. We've had people buy our domain name and hold us to ransom, copy the entirety of our website passing it off as their own and many other things over the years. This recent fraud, though, is another level.”