The cost of caring for refugee children will lead to higher council tax bills or service cuts unless more money is provided, ministers have been warned.

A scheme to resettle unaccompanied children around the UK starts in July.
The government has agreed to take in more child refugees, including from the EU and 3,000 children and relatives from the Middle East and North Africa.
The Local Government Association says the number of spaces councils will make available will depend on funding.
At the moment children are looked after where they arrive, largely in Kent or near Heathrow airport.
Deputy leader of Hillingdon council, which cares for children who arrive at the airport, David Simmonds said: "Unless there's additional funding in the system we'll need to see either increases in council tax to pay for supporting refugee children or we'll see local councils cutting other services."
From July, the government will provide more money to support newly arrived unaccompanied refugee children: £41,600 a year for those under 16 years old. The Home Office has been in talks with councils for weeks about the arrangements.
But Mr Simmonds, who is also deputy chair of the Local Government Association - which represents councils in England and Wales - said this fell short of a real cost of £50,000 a year.
He has told the government that the number of children who could be accommodated would depend on how much money was made available.
Correspondence seen by BBC Radio 4's Today programme says the "first phase" of a "national transfer scheme" will begin in July. Some councils have already refused to accommodate more children.
Under pressure to accept extra unaccompanied child refugees, the government first insisted it would only accept them from beyond the EU, before conceding it would resettle those registered in Greece, Italy or France before 20 March.
These numbers were in addition to a scheme to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK by 2020.
More than 3,000 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in the year to March - a 57% rise. Afghans, Eritreans and Albanians accounted for more than half the applications.


A climber has died after falling on Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis.

Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team said the man had suffered fatal injuries in the fall on Saturday morning.
The Coastguard rescue helicopter from Inverness was diverted from training and arrived on the scene at about 11:10 BST.
The climber was airlifted from the mountain and transferred to an ambulance at the Torlundy helicopter landing site near Fort William.
The rescue team praised the helicopter crew for recovering the man from a "very difficult location" on the mountain.
Tower Ridge is one of several big ridges on the north-east face of the 1,345m (4,413ft) Ben Nevis and is considered by many climbers to have an Alpine feel because of its length and exposure.
A spokeswoman for the Coastguard said the operation had taken about two hours.
In a post on the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team's Facebook page, a spokesperson for the team wrote: "We are sad to report that a call out yesterday was to a climber who suffered fatal injuries sustained in fall while climbing Tower Ridge.
"Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family and friends."
"A big thank you to R951 who did a fantastic job to make the recovery from a very difficult location and all the climbers who assisted and brought down the climber's friend."
Twenty people died in the Scottish mountains last year, according to Mountaineering Scotland.
Three of the fatalities were on Ben Nevis, including the deaths of Rachel Slater and Tim Newton, who were killed by an avalanche on the mountain in February 2016.
More than 100,000 people are thought to reach the summit of the UK's highest mountain each year.


US President Donald Trump has defended Vladimir Putin when questioned over allegations of murders carried out by the Russian state.

In an interview with Fox News, he said: "There are a lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country's so innocent?"
Mr Trump said he respected President Putin and would prefer to "get along with him".
He said he wanted help from Russia in the fight against "Islamic terrorism".
Excerpts of the interview with Bill O'Reilly, carried out at Mr Trump's Florida home, have been released ahead of the full interview being broadcast by Fox ahead of Sunday evening's Super Bowl, and on the two following nights.
Asked whether he respected Mr Putin, the US president replied: "I do respect him... well I respect a lot of people. That doesn't mean I'm going to get along with him."
He added: "I say it's better to get along with Russia than not. And if Russia helps us in the fight against Isis [so-called Islamic State], which is a major fight, and Islamic terrorism all over the world - that's a good thing. Will I get along with him? I have no idea."
The two men spoke on the phone last Saturday and have agreed to stay in "regular personal contact" but no date has been set for a meeting.
Mr Trump was also asked whether it was responsible to make claims about issues without citing facts to back them up, such as his contention that millions of people voted illegally during the US presidential election that he won - but with almost three million fewer votes than his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.
He replied: "Many people have come out and said I'm right, you know that.
"When you see illegals, people that are not citizens and they are on the registration rolls... you have illegals, you have dead people... it's really a bad situation."


Those bereaved by the Paddington train crash have marked the 15th anniversary of the disaster with a ceremony.

They have placed flowers at a memorial site high above the railway line at Ladbroke Grove in west London.
Just before 08:10 BST on 5 October 1999, 31 people died when two trains collided almost head-on.
The subsequent inquiry found the Thames Trains service travelling from Paddington to Bedwyn in Wiltshire had gone through a red signal.
It then crashed into the London-bound high-speed First Great Western train which had left Cheltenham Spa in Gloucestershire at 06:03.
The Thames driver, Michael Hodder, 31, and the other train driver, Brian Cooper, 52, were among those killed as the collision led to a fireball in which coach H was burnt out.
As well as the fatalities, more than 220 people were injured.
Paddington Survivors group chairman Jonathan Duckworth, 56, from Stroud in Gloucestershire, was on the First Great Western train.
Father-of-two Mr Duckworth said: "Luckily, I was only in hospital for around 24 hours but then I suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I had to have about 18 months of treatment and was only able after that to take on small, part-time jobs.
"It was six or seven years before I was able to work full-time again."
The Paddington disaster was followed by fatal rail crashes at Hatfield in Hertfordshire in 2000, at Selby in North Yorkshire in 2001 and at Potters Bar in Hertfordshire in 2002.
Michael Roberts, director-general of the Rail Delivery Group, which speaks on behalf of Network Rail and the train operators, said: "We remember those who lost their lives and all those whose lives were changed as a result of the Paddington crash.
"After serious accidents in the early 2000s, changes such as an overhaul of employee training for those doing safety-critical jobs and a better approach to staff working hours have helped improve safety on Britain's railway."


Two units have been destroyed in a fire which raged through warehouses at an industrial estate in Inverclyde.

Crews were called to Kingston Industrial Estate in Ardgowan Street, Port Glasgow, at 14:30 on Saturday.
About 25 firefighters battled flames and thick smoke in the workshops which housed buses and other vehicles.
A 39-year-old man was treated at the scene for minor burns to his hands. An investigation was due to be carried out to establish the cause of the blaze.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said two appliances were still at the scene on Sunday dampening down remaining parts of the buildings.
A demolition team was later brought in to bring down the remains of the units.


Yahoo has confirmed that it knew for two years that a "state-sponsored actor" had hacked into its network.

It added that a panel of independent experts was now investigating exactly how much was known and by whom.
When Yahoo first disclosed the theft of millions of its users' details in September, it only made mention of a "recent investigation".
At the time, Verizon - which is buying part of Yahoo - said it had only been told of the breach the same week.
In its latest filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Yahoo acknowledged that the telecoms firm might now reconsider the $4.8bn (Â£3.9bn) takeover of its internet operations.
"As a result of facts relating to the security incident [Verizon] may seek to terminate the stock purchase agreement or renegotiate the terms of the sale," it said.
There had already been speculation that Yahoo had been aware of a problem for some time.
In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that the tech firm had detected a cyber-breach in the autumn of 2014 that it believed had been launched from computers in Russia. However, the paper said that its unnamed source did not know whether the two attacks were connected.
In its filing, Yahoo indicates that it only discovered information from at least 500 million accounts - including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and unencrypted security questions and answers - had been stolen after it had looked into another unsubstantiated claim.
It said that it subsequently "intensified an ongoing broader review" that caused it to re-examine "access to the company's network by a state-sponsored actor", which it had identified in late 2014.
It added that evidence had since come to light that suggested the hacker had created cookies that let them bypass the need to enter passwords to access users' accounts.
And it revealed that law enforcement officers had been given data by a hacker who claimed it had come from Yahoo's users accounts. The firm said it would now help analyse the shared data.
"It was a good day to bury the news," commented Dr Joss Wright from the University of Oxford's Internet Institute, referring to the fact that Yahoo's filing had coincided with the US election results.
"Because there's rarely a large visible event when a breach happens, companies can choose not to report them hoping that they can fix the problem internally.
"They may calculate the risk to their reputation outweighs the potential risks of the details later coming out beyond their control.
"That's why we need to have better enforced laws that require companies to reveal breaches and notify their consumers."
Yahoo did acknowledge a server breach in October 2014 but said at the time that no user data had been lost.
A spokeswoman for Yahoo was unable to comment about the timing of the filing or provide other information.
However, it is common for US companies to file 10Q disclosure forms to the SEC 40 days after the close of a quarter.


BP has confirmed it has scrapped plans for a new gas sweetening plant at Shetland's Sullom Voe terminal.

The company announced in March the project had been put on hold due to the current business climate.
It would have employed about 300 workers in the construction phase and created around 30 full-time jobs.
A spokesman for BP said the firm now intended to focus on enhancing the gas sweetening capability of its existing plant at Sullom Voe.
He added: "We remain committed to ensuring that Sullom Voe Terminal has the necessary facilities to reliably support long-term oil and gas production from fields to the west and east of Shetland.
"Ensuring reliable and 'fit for purpose' gas sweetening capability is an important element of this.
"Given the current business climate and as a result of revised west of Shetland sour gas production modelling work, the Sullom Voe Gas Sweetening (SVGS) partners have concluded that a more cost-effective solution to meeting future gas sweetening needs for the region is possible.
"Consequently the revised SVGS project will focus on enhancing (and potentially expanding) the gas sweetening capability of the existing plant at SVT and maintaining the existing offshore sour gas "scavenging" capability on Clair and Schiehallion."


Rail passengers outside the south-east of England are expected to put up with "cast-off" trains, MPs say.

The Commons Transport Select Committee said rail investment had been focused on London "for far too long".
It also said ministers "must address" delays to improvement works to avoid a repeat of the issues seen at Christmas.
The Department for Transport said it was building a "world class railway" with "ambitious plans" to improve services in northern England.
The committee said it welcomed Network Rail's planned investment up to 2019.
But it called for "a fairer allocation of rail investment across the country".
The formula used has meant the "far south-west" has been "starved of investment", the MPs said.
Labour MP Louise Ellman welcomed the "record" spending planned, but said: "Treasury statistics demonstrate that for too long this spending has been focused on London.
"We call for revised  - and published - criteria to ensure fairer funding allocations that reflect wider economic and social objectives."
The MPs also said the government should take responsibility for train rolling stock and address shortages. They questioned the "cascading" of trains to other parts of the country when new stock is bought for the south-east of England.
The report said: "It is concerning that the department has chosen to order brand new trains for passengers in London and the South East, while expecting passengers in the rest of the country to be content with reconditioned older trains - cast-offs from more prosperous areas."
Ms Ellman said Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin had refused to say when the "outdated and unpopular" Pacer trains would be removed from the network, adding that they should go by 2020 at the latest.
Pacer trains were built between 1980 and 1987, and were originally intended a short-term solution to a shortage of rolling stock, but remain in use today.
Passengers faced severe delays at King's Cross and Paddington stations over the festive period as engineering work over-ran.
The committee said the "unacceptable" disruption was "a worrying sign for the capacity of Network Rail to manage multiple, complex engineering projects simultaneously".
It said the company had to show it could deliver improvements such as electrification in north west England on on the Great Western Main Line on time.
A Department for Transport spokesman said Pacer trains would be replaced as part of improvements including the proposed "HS3" rail link across northern England.
He added: "Together they will improve services for passengers and help close the economic gap between north and south. We have made it clear to Network Rail that we expect the company to deliver the government's investment programme on time and on budget."
But Labour said the government's plans to modernise the railways were being threatened by "ministerial incompetence".
"They were asleep on the job during the Christmas meltdown, and across the country projects are delayed, overspent and at risk of being cut back," said shadow rail minister Lillian Greenwood.
"Hard pressed commuters on overcrowded carriages have been hit with fare rises of up to 33% since 2010 and no end is in sight for the antiquated Pacer trains that David Cameron promised to replace.
"Passengers want real reform - such as a legal right to the cheapest fare - but today's report is a stark reminder that it won't happen under a Conservative government."


Swindon goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux produced a spectacular string of saves to earn his side a goalless draw at home to Southend.

The draw for the Shrimpers was enough to see their unbeaten streak in League One extend to 13 games but it could have been even better.
Swindon created the first chance after six minute when Anton Rodgers' corner found Raphael Rossi-Branco unmarked but the defender had his shot saved by Ted Smith.
The home side let another opportunity go begging in the 27th minute after John Obika leapt above Michael Timlin at the far post but he was unable to direct his header on target.
Southend should have taken the lead seven minutes later when Anthony Wordsworth played a cross in to Simon Cox but he was unable to reach the ball for a tap in.
Vigouroux produced a heroic double save in the 77th minute, firstly denying Jason Demetriou from close range and then substitute Zavon Hines.
The Frenchman was on hand again four minutes later to parry Hines' left-foot shot on to the post.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Swindon Town 0, Southend United 0.
Second Half ends, Swindon Town 0, Southend United 0.
Foul by Nile Ranger (Southend United).
Darnell Furlong (Swindon Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Sean Murray (Swindon Town) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Jason Demetriou (Southend United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by James Brophy (Swindon Town).
Substitution, Southend United. Jack Bridge replaces Anthony Wordsworth.
Attempt missed. Jermaine Hylton (Swindon Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt missed. Jermaine Hylton (Swindon Town) left footed shot from outside the box is too high.
Darnell Furlong (Swindon Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Zavon Hines (Southend United).
Foul by Nile Ranger (Southend United).
James Brophy (Swindon Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt missed. Jermaine Hylton (Swindon Town) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is close, but misses to the right.
Attempt saved. Jermaine Hylton (Swindon Town) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt saved. Adam Thompson (Southend United) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Lloyd Jones.
Substitution, Swindon Town. Jermaine Hylton replaces John Goddard.
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Lawrence Vigouroux.
Attempt saved. Zavon Hines (Southend United) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Foul by Will Atkinson (Southend United).
Anton Rodgers (Swindon Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Jonathan Obika (Swindon Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Michael Timlin (Southend United).
Attempt missed. Anthony Wordsworth (Southend United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high.
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Lawrence Vigouroux.
Attempt saved. Zavon Hines (Southend United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
Attempt saved. Jason Demetriou (Southend United) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Corner,  Swindon Town. Conceded by Ryan Leonard.
Attempt missed. Jonathan Obika (Swindon Town) left footed shot from the right side of the box is just a bit too high.
Ryan Leonard (Southend United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Jonathan Obika (Swindon Town).
Michael Timlin (Southend United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Sean Murray (Swindon Town).
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Sean Murray.
Substitution, Swindon Town. Sean Murray replaces Conor Thomas.
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Raphael Rossi Branco.
Corner,  Southend United. Conceded by Jonathan Obika.
Substitution, Southend United. Zavon Hines replaces Jermaine McGlashan.


Ollie Watkins' hat-trick helped Exeter City seize all three points in a comfortable win for Exeter City, which left Newport County five points adrift at the bottom of League Two.

Watkins struck either side of the break and late on while David Wheeler tapped home on 53 minutes for the Grecians.
Sean Rigg's late header proved a mere consolation for the struggling Exiles.
The win moved the visitors up to 11th, but leaves Newport County bottom of the table and five points from safety.
Manager Graham Westley told BBC Radio Wales Sport: "I thought we played with good character in the first half.
"To concede before half time was tough. In the second half we slumped a little bit and were still feeling sorry for ourselves.
"By the time we kicked ourselves out of that we were 3-0 down.
"We effectively lost the game in the five or ten minutes after half time."
Match ends, Newport County 1, Exeter City 4.
Second Half ends, Newport County 1, Exeter City 4.
Goal!  Newport County 1, Exeter City 4. Ollie Watkins (Exeter City) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Robbie Simpson following a fast break.
Corner,  Newport County. Conceded by Lloyd James.
Josh O'Hanlon (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jordan Moore-Taylor (Exeter City).
Corner,  Newport County. Conceded by Connor Riley-Lowe.
Corner,  Newport County. Conceded by Christy Pym.
Attempt saved. Jazzi Barnum-Bobb (Newport County) right footed shot from long range on the right is saved in the bottom left corner.
Substitution, Exeter City. Robbie Simpson replaces Liam McAlinden.
Corner,  Newport County. Conceded by Jake Taylor.
Attempt blocked. Josh Sheehan (Newport County) right footed shot from long range on the right is blocked.
Foul by Rhys Healey (Newport County).
Lloyd James (Exeter City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Rhys Healey (Newport County).
Jack Stacey (Exeter City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Goal!  Newport County 1, Exeter City 3. Sean Rigg (Newport County) header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Mark Randall with a cross.
Substitution, Exeter City. Jordan Tillson replaces David Wheeler.
Foul by Jazzi Barnum-Bobb (Newport County).
Liam McAlinden (Exeter City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt blocked. Liam McAlinden (Exeter City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Foul by Rhys Healey (Newport County).
Jack Stacey (Exeter City) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Substitution, Newport County. Josh O'Hanlon replaces Scot Bennett because of an injury.
Ollie Watkins (Exeter City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jazzi Barnum-Bobb (Newport County).
Rhys Healey (Newport County) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jake Taylor (Exeter City).
Substitution, Newport County. Jordan Green replaces Marlon Jackson.
Jennison Myrie-Williams (Newport County) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by David Wheeler (Exeter City).
Attempt missed. Rhys Healey (Newport County) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Foul by Mark Randall (Newport County).
Jake Taylor (Exeter City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Abdoulaye Méité (Newport County).
David Wheeler (Exeter City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Exeter City. Ryan Harley replaces Joel Grant.
Goal!  Newport County 0, Exeter City 3. David Wheeler (Exeter City) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal.
Foul by Marlon Jackson (Newport County).
Lloyd James (Exeter City) wins a free kick on the left wing.


An early Banksy work painted on the side of a festival worker's trailer has fetched £445,792 ($676,668) at an auction in Paris.

Silent Majority, painted during the 1998 Glastonbury Festival, shows soldier-like figures landing on a beach with a speaker in an inflatable raft.
Its Norfolk owners say it "depicts the ...rave and hip hop scene of the time".
The work is unusual for a Banksy piece, as it is largely freehand with little use of stencils.
Auction house Digard said it was thought to be one of the artist's oldest works.
The metal piece, painted over three days outside the festival's Dance Tent, measures 2.4m (7.8ft) by 9.9m (32ft).
Its message reads: "It's better not to rely too much on silent majorities ... for silence is a fragile thing... one loud noise and it's gone."
The elusive graffiti artist's team has provided a certificate of authenticity as part of the auction lot. It was painted in collaboration with fellow Bristol artist Inkie.
The owner, who prefers to be known by his first name, Nathan, said he organises infrastructure at festivals and lives in the trailer.
He said Banksy approached him in 1998 - before he rose to fame - to ask if he could use it as a canvas for a piece commissioned by the festival.
Nathan agreed, in return for some tickets and his expenses.
Now he says he has no definite plans for the proceeds although he may choose to build a house.
Street art specialist Mary McCarthy said the piece was "quite special" as an example of a Banksy work which did not rely heavily on stencils.
"This one really is a rare piece," she said.
It was one of more than 150 "urban art" pieces auctioned on Monday including work by artists Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Pure Evil and Conor Harrington.


A new scam, in which fraudsters pose as legitimate internet service providers to offer bogus tech support, either via the phone or on the net,  is on the rise, the BBC has found.

It is a twist on an old trick which involved cold-calling a victim - often claiming to represent Microsoft - and charging for fake tech support.
The new variants have been spotted in the UK and US.
BT said that it was investigating the issue.
The online version of the scam involves a realistic pop-up that interrupts a victim's normal browsing session with a message that appears to be legitimate and seems to come from the victim's real ISP.
US security firm Malwarebytes has spotted several from US and Canadian ISPs, including ComCast and AT&T. It has also seen webpages created for UK ISPs, including TalkTalk and BT.
The pop-up contains a message saying that the ISP has "detected malware", and urging victims to call a number "for immediate assistance".
Jerome Segura, a consultant at security firm Malwarebytes, has been investigating tech support scams for years but when he came across the latest iteration, he nearly fell for it.
"It caught me by surprise and I almost thought that it was real. It was a page from my ISP telling me my computer was infected. It was only when I looked in closer detail that I saw it was a scam," he told the BBC.
He is not surprised scammers have found new methods to fool people.
"Cold calls are very wasteful and after years of being told, people are starting to realise it is a scam so the scammers have to find new ways to make it personalised and legitimate. It is more cost-effective and efficient than cold-calling," said Mr Segura.
How do scammers know your ISP?
In the case of cold calls it may just be a lucky case of guessing a common ISP but in the case of pop-ups, there is an altogether cleverer way for fraudsters to glean information that can help them.
How it works
Fraudsters do still use cold-calling but their methods here have also become more sophisticated -  instead of a vague description of themselves as a Windows Support agent, many are now claiming to represent legitimate ISPs, with very believable answers when they are challenged.
Take David from the Midlands, who falls into the category of a typical victim, being older and not entirely tech-savvy. He is, coincidentally, related to a Malwarebytes employee.
He recently received a phone call from someone claiming to represent the BT Rescue centre.
The fact that the call had come up as an international number aroused David's suspicions.
"We get inundated periodically with international calls and we know that they are either trying to sell us something or are up to no good," he told the BBC.
The caller tried to persuade David that he had been monitoring his BT broadband service for some time and had become aware of a number of viruses that needed immediate attention.
David was not sure - he had fallen for a similar scam a few years ago and was not ready to do so again. He asked for the caller's telephone number and address and told him he would check with BT and get back to him.
The number the man gave him to call back on looked like a London one (with a 0203 prefix) and the address he gave was the actual address of BT's London headquarters.
After several unsuccessful attempts to get through to BT's genuine helpline number to verify the call, David decided to ring back.
"I got through to what sounded like a call centre and a young lady said 'this is BT Support and I will put you through to a technician'. It all sounded very believable.
"The technician, who I think was a different person to the original caller, said he was from the BT rescue team and had been monitoring the use of my BT broadband and had been getting signals that it had been hacked into," David told the BBC.
He asked David to type Alureon into Google, to show him the virus he was claiming had infected his computer. Alureon is a real virus that buries itself deep inside the Windows operating system.
After scaring him with the possible dangers, he asked David to visit a website and enter a code which gave the technician remote access to his computer.
He showed him a range of programs on his computer that looked as if they could have a problem - one of the issues with the Windows operating system is that it shows a lot of errors that can look suspicious to the untrained eye.
Malwarebytes has recently seen a lot more cases of scammers targeting Mac computers but Microsoft remains the main method because it is fair bet that many older users will have a computer that runs a Windows operating system.
The software giant is well aware of the tech support scam and since May 2014, has received over 200,000 customer complaints regarding them. This year alone, an estimated 3.3 million people in the United States will pay more than $1.5bn to scammers, according to its figures.
David was starting to believe that the call he had received was genuine but when the "technician" asked him to log into his banking site, he felt something was wrong and hung up.
He is angry that he fell for the scam and even more angry with BT.
"When I needed to get through to them, I couldn't," he said.
In a statement BT told the BBC: "BT takes the security of our customers' accounts very seriously. We have recently been proactively warning our customers to be on their guard against scams. Fraudsters use various methods to 'glean' your personal or financial details with the ultimate aim of stealing from you.
"Our advice is that customers should never share their BT account number with anyone and should always shred bills. Be wary of calls or emails you're not expecting. Even if someone quotes your BT account number, you shouldn't trust them with your personal information."
Older, less tech-savvy individuals like David tend to be the main targets of such scammers and, once they fall for it, are called again and again by fraudsters, Courtney Gregoire, a senior lawyer at Microsoft, told the BBC.
"Some lose hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said.
"80% of what we see are cold callers but we are now seeing traffic for the new type of pop-up fraudsters," she added.
As well as seeing examples of fraudsters using bogus ISP pop-ups, the cybercrime unit at Microsoft has also seen pop-ups which lock a computer and demand a fee.
The firm has begun talks with ISPs, including US-based ComCast and the UK's BT on the issue.
In December 2014, in its first big strike against technical support scamming companies, Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit filed a civil lawsuit in a federal court in the Central District of California against Omnitech Support for unfair and deceptive business practices and trademark infringement.
The case was settled out of court under a confidential agreement.
According to Ms Gregoire, Microsoft has tracked many of the call centres from which the scams are run back to India and is now working with Indian law enforcement to crack down on them.
Raids on such call centres are starting to shed light on the operation behind the scam.
"We will find out whether the employees know that they are engaged in a scam or whether they were just reading from a script," she said.
The pop-up scam seems to be mainly focused in the US at the moment, with Verizon, AT&T and TimeWarner all being impersonated but Malwarebytes also discovered fake pages set up for BT, PlusNet, Sky and TalkTalk.
Security firm Symantec told the BBC it had seen a 200% rise in tech support scams this year - with 100 million malware exploits related to them.
Consultant Sian John said the firm had seen more and more scammers using pop-ups, in a reversal of the traditional cold call.
"The scammers are trying to get people to call them - people are literally paying to be scammed."
There are two main ways that the scammers make money from tech support scams.
Users are either persuaded to download software that will install malware - this could be banking trojans that will offer direct access to all your financial information or malware that joins your computer to a botnet.
In other cases, people are persuaded to sign up for bogus tech support services, giving credit card details that provide the scammers with a one-off payment of around $200.
In November the FBI shut down several tech support scammers going under the name of Click4Support operating in Philadelphia and Connecticut.
It is believed that the scammers had been in operation since 2013 and during those two years had made more than $17m.


A 26-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the "brutal" murder of Vale of Glamorgan teenager Conner Marshall in an attack at a caravan park.

The 18-year-old from Barry died four days after the serious assault at Trecco Bay caravan park in Porthcawl, Bridgend county, on Sunday, 8 March.
Appearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday, David James Braddon, 26, from Caerphilly, admitted carrying out the attack.
He will be sentenced on 3 June.
Speaking after the court hearing, Det Ch Insp Kath Pritchard of South Wales Police said: "This was a brutal attack on a teenage boy which has left his family and friends devastated by the incident, and brought shock and sadness to both the visitors of Trecco Bay and also the community of Barry.
"We know incidents like this can cause a great deal of concern and anxiety. The community support has undoubtedly helped us to bring the person responsible for Conner's murder to justice."
Following the fatal attack in March, his family paid tribute to the former Ysgol Bro Morgannwg pupil as "a unique, caring and compassionate young man with a warm, infectious smile complete with a cheeky wink".


Iraqi forces fighting so-called Islamic State (IS) in Mosul have broken through the front line without suffering any losses, a spokesman says.

Sabah al-Numan told the BBC that many IS fighters had been killed.
Government forces entered the city's outskirts for the first time on Tuesday since the city was seized in June 2014.
Wednesday is the 17th day of the anti-IS operation, which involves 50,000 personnel including Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Sunni Arab tribesmen.
Elite troops seized control of the state TV building in Kukjali on Tuesday hours after launching an assault on the eastern district and later breached the outskirts of the Karama district.
A BBC journalist travelling with them said they were facing stiff resistance.
But Mr al-Numan, a spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said: "We broke the front line of the centre of Mosul. We liberated a very important area which is the main gate for Mosul from the east.
"We had a very tough fight with ISIS in this area and we could liberate it very fast and also without any casualties, in front of many dead and executed from ISIS."
Mosul is last major urban stronghold of IS in the country.
The men of the special forces appear casual - but make no mistake, they are ready.
Many have scars from Ramadi or Falluja or both. They have lost friends. Some are younger than you might expect for the fighting they have experienced.
Many are also recently married - common practice before deploying for battle - and keen to show pictures of their new brides on their smart phones.
From low-ranked soldiers to top generals, all say this is not going to be easy. The mission could take months.
But liberating Mosul is the fight they have been waiting for.
The ugly, deadly urban warfare of Mosul
Army units are also pushing into the south-eastern Judaydat al-Mufti area, according to the military.
The operation is backed by air and ground support from a US-led coalition.
On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the 3,000 to 5,000 militants believed to still be inside Mosul that there was "no escape" and to "either surrender or die".
About 1,000 of the militants are thought to be foreigners. Gen Talib Shaghati al-Kenani said they came from Uzbekistan, Turkey and other countries.
"Those are a group of terrorists who fight Iraqis and usurp their cities," Gen Kenani said.
Many people have fled the area but some civilians have returned to their homes in villages around Mosul, some waving white flags to show they are not fighters.
As Mosul is encircled, UN officials have expressed concern for the safety of the 1.5 million civilians estimated to be living there.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday that it had received fresh reports of mass killings and forced relocations carried out by IS.
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said 1,792 people were killed in October, 1,120 of whom were civilians.


Special Olympics Great Britain wants more action to improve the health of people with learning disabilities in this country.

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Government-funded research says women with a learning disability die 20 years younger on average than the general UK population and men 13 years younger.
"The life expectancy is horrifying," said Special Olympics GB chief executive Karen Wallin.
"That's unacceptable in a country meant to be in the forefront of healthcare."
It gave me more of a sense of believing in what I can do
An intellectual, or learning, disability is a term used for those with an IQ of 75 or less.
Special Olympics is the charity which organises year-round sport for these people and Wallin explained the challenges they are facing.
"The other statistic is that one in three people with learning difficulties are obese," she said.
"The reason they're dying younger is that they have preventable diseases that are not being caught early enough, but I don't think we've seen anything happen or any major impact of reducing the reduced life expectancy at the moment.
"So we are trying to address that."
This week the Copper Box Arena, a London 2012 venue, hosted an event where people with such a disability were given a chance to try sports for free.
Ian Harper has participated in a number of national and European events as a Special Olympics athlete - and, by his own admission, if he had not got involved he would probably still be sitting on the sofa.
"It gave me more confidence from the start and it gave me more of a sense of believing in what I can do," he said.
"Those who are not involved in Special Olympics , who don't know about Special Olympics, think their chances are limited.
"But if you get in there it changes your life completely and it feels you've got more opportunity."
Special Olympics GB is not funded by the lottery. It recently secured some treasury funding, which the charity says made a significant difference, but that money was a one-off payment.
At next year's national Special Olympics Games in Sheffield clubs will be asked to raise hundreds of pounds for each competitor they send to enable the event to happen.
"We are probably still one of the only countries in Europe that doesn't receive central funding or sport governing body funding to put on events or to go to world games," Wallin added.
"It puts a strain on the clubs it puts a strain on the head office to raise two million pounds.
"Our athletes and families are great at going out and talking to local communities but one in two people with learning disability live in poverty, so asking them to go out and fund raise to take part in something doesn't make sense."
More images from the Special Olympics event at the Copper Box.........


The Queen's husband Prince Philip will stop taking part in royal duties this autumn.

Also having the title the Duke of Edinburgh, he will be 96 years old next month.
Due to their age, the Queen and Prince Philip had already stopped travelling long distances and doing as many public appearances.
Buckingham Palace says Prince Philip made this decision himself and is supported by the Queen.
The younger members of the family like Prince William and his wife Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge, along with Prince Harry, will now be doing more of these royal duties.
The Duke of Edinburgh is the Queen's husband - they've been married for nearly 70 years.
He is the father of Prince Charles, the grandfather of Princes William and Harry, and the great-grandfather of Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
He isn't the king, but he had a special job title - consort - and his role is to support Queen Elizabeth II.
He holds the record for the longest-serving consort in British history!


Details have emerged of a Chinese gang accused of running a sophisticated online betting network in the run-up to the World Cup, state media reports.

The gang, which was broken up last month, is alleged to have accumulated more than 100bn yuan (Â£9.7bn; $14.8bn).
China had pledged to crack down on online football gambling during the championships in South Africa.
Gambling is banned in China, although small bets can be placed through state-run lotteries.
The alleged ringleader of the gang went by the name "Dark Brother".
Chinese newspapers said he was arrested as he left what was described as "a cocaine-fuelled nightclub party" last month in Shenzhen, the sprawling metropolis that neighbours Hong Kong.
The alleged kingpin, who is from Hong Kong, is accused of running a tightly-organised network that stretched across southern and eastern China, taking bets over the internet.
An accomplice known as "Old Cat" allegedly helped run the operation from an apartment where she lived with her child.
"The ringleader of a gambling gang? I never saw that!" was the reaction from local officials when told of her arrest.
Gambling is illegal in China, but the Chinese Centre for Lottery Studies estimates that more than $87bn is gambled by Chinese punters through offshore betting networks.
China's football team did not make it to the World Cup, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of fans, many of whom were keen to bet on the matches.
As China debates why its national football team's performance is so dismal, the state news agency Xinhua has warned that the country has little chance of creating football legends in an environment full of gambling, fraud, greed and ignorance.


Blackburn owners Venky's have given manager Tony Mowbray their "full support" despite the club's relegation to League One on Sunday.

The 1994-95 Premier League champions were relegated on goal difference despite a 3-1 victory at Brentford.
Venky's released a statement on Monday saying they are "deeply hurt", adding: "We share the same feelings as our supporters."
Meanwhile, director of football and operations Paul Senior has resigned.
Senior had only been in the role since January and his departure was confirmed on Monday.
The club statement went on to say that they were confident Mowbray would guide the club back up to the Championship next season.
The statement continued: "We have all witnessed the events of recent years, where teams have been relegated but have turned their clubs around and emerged stronger, and we are determined to see Blackburn Rovers do the same.
"Work has already begun to make this happen and we will be making every effort during the forthcoming season to give ourselves the best chance to achieve this goal."
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Meanwhile, Blackburn's former striker Kevin Gallacher says the Venky's need to "wake up" following the club's relegation.
Ex-Scotland international Gallacher told BBC Radio 5 live: "They have not understood football, they've not understood the people of Blackburn,
"When you sell your best assets in trying to stay financially secure, they forget about where football clubs are built and that is on the grass.
"It proved this term that they weren't good enough on the grass to sustain the business and this is what has happened."
Blackburn's Indian owners Venky's, run by the Rao family, took over in 2010 and sacked Sam Allardyce as manager within their first month at the helm.
Fans have continued to protest against the owners this season, while the club's most recent accounts showed debts of more than £106m.
Mowbray took over from Owen Coyle as manager in February, with the latter having spent £250,000 of the £10m he recouped in the transfer market.
"The managers are only as good as the players that they are getting but the past three managers - Tony Mowbray, Paul Lambert and Owen Coyle - have had hands tied and promises of finances to spend regarding transfer windows," added Gallacher, who played for Blackburn between 1993 and 1999.
"Those promises were broken and saw Paul Lambert walk away from the football club and Owen Coyle struggle.
"Tony Mowbray had a good 15-game stint to try to save Blackburn. In any other given season, the points tally he took would have saved them from relegation, but it wasn't to be.
"You look at the team now and think 'where is the investment in the players' because they are a League One side now.
"It is going to be very difficult for the owners but, hopefully, they'll wake up and something can happen very quickly."
BBC Radio Lancashire commentator Andy Bayes
I don't know the owners at all. I have tried - believe me!
The last time I spoke to them was when Sam Allardyce left in 2010. That's not through my choice. The only statement the fans want is to see is them leave.
I have not seen or heard any evidence to suggest the ownership will change.
The analogy that the players didn't care is not an accurate one. I stood next to several of them at Brentford on Sunday and it was etched on their faces what had happened.
I hope the club bounces back, but it will be tough.
Mowbray, whose side went down with 51 points, says player recruitment will be "paramount" during the summer as Blackburn look to build for a season in League One.
The 53-year-old former Coventry, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion manager won five of his 15 games in charge after taking over in February.
"Recruitment is the currency of a football club," he told BBC Radio Lancashire.
"If you bring in good players, you win matches. If you bring in poor players, you lose matches and will find yourself in the wrong situation.
"We are starting from scratch. We didn't know which league we would be in.
"At League One level, we should be really competitive salary-wise, but footballers of a certain quality don't want to play in League One."


The future of a residential home for children in north Wales has been thrown into doubt.

Action for Children runs Drws y Nant, in Caernarfon, on behalf of Gwynedd council but it is now under review.
The home offers short-term care to youngsters from troubled backgrounds.
The council has said a combination of factors, including funding cuts, has meant the future of the centre is under review.


As the investigation into who was behind the Boston bombings goes on, Muslim communities are braced for a backlash should the perpetrator share their faith.

The day after the Boston Marathon bombings, Yusef was treated differently.
The 10-year-old went to his Ohio school and was surprised by a question from a classmate, according to his family.  While the class was discussing the explosions, the classmate is said to have asked: "Does that mean Yusef is going to blow up the school?"
A confused Yusef, whose family asked that his last name not be used, says he repeated the classmate's question. But the teacher apparently only heard Yusef's end of the exchange, a misunderstanding that resulted in detention and having his locker searched.
This story is exactly what Anum Hussain feared when she first heard of the bombings. Hussain is a regional director with the Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament and teaches Muslim youth about bullying.
Having grown up in the aftermath of 9/11, Hussain worries that this generation of Muslims could be bullied because of the blasts - especially if the person responsible is a Muslim.
"The sad truth is that regardless of the facts, people are already getting unfairly stereotyped," says Hussain.
"We're all on the edge of our seats praying that the person who did these acts isn't a Muslim. We're tired of being blamed for the actions of one person."
It's a sentiment shared by many, especially among Arab, African, Asian and Sikh Americans. As the FBI investigation inches closer to finding a suspect, these communities fear a new wave of ethnically charged violence and harassment.
Some Muslims see progress in the way they are treated, and are heartened by the official response to the Boston attacks, which has used language with care and deliberation.
"It starts with the leadership of the country, if they are being able to do this slowly, it will trickle down to the people," one woman at a meeting of the Islamic Society of Northeastern University told the BBC.
"Even news and online articles are starting to tone down a little from a few years ago. People are starting to understand that not all Muslims are bad."
But others are concerned that the good work of the past few years could be quickly undone if the bomber is Muslim.
"Despite some of the headway and normalcy achieved since 9/11, it could be extinguished in an instant if the perpetrator fits the caricature of a terrorist," says Khaled Beydoun, a critical race studies fellow at UCLA School of Law.
When Beydoun heard about the Boston attacks, he was worried about a friend who was running in the marathon. But a familiar fear crept into his mind as he thought about who was responsible for the attacks.
From crises such as the Newtown shootings to the blasts in Boston, Beydoun has always worried about the national reaction if the perpetrator is a Muslim or "looks" Muslim.
"It's part of this collective consciousness that Muslims and Arab-Americans experience in any time of crisis," says Beydoun.
He thinks that white suspects are treated differently to suspects from minority groups.
"With a white American versus an Arab or Muslim American, we know from previous incidences that a white terrorist will be framed as an individual aberration," he says.
"Whereas a culprit who is an Arab, Muslim or black American will vilify an entire community of people."
Many people point to the shootings in Newtown, Oak Creek, and Aurora as examples - the white men all responsible for those tragedies were described as being mentally ill, not representative of an entire culture or race.
As major cities across the nation tightened security to prepare for additional threats, Muslims and advocacy groups braced for their own set of dangers. Past data points to spikes in hate crimes associated with major attacks in the US, especially after 9/11.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council is one of the organisations preparing for a potential backlash against Muslims in the US.
President Salam Al-Marayati says the organisation has reached out to Homeland Security officials and law enforcement, routine steps for any advocacy group working with Muslims and vulnerable communities.
While no-one can predict the magnitude of response if the person responsible for the Boston bombings is Muslim, it could be comparable to 9/11, says Trevor Aaronson, author of the Terror Factory.
"You'll see a similar ratcheting up of Islamophobia that right now exists under the surface," he says.
The prospect of harassment reminiscent of the post-9/11 environment worries Hussain.
"I didn't start getting bullied until after 9/11," says Hussain. "And it continued through middle school, through high school and up to college; it's not something that ever stops."
Muslims have been under the public microscope since Monday's bombings.
In the absence of facts and a suspect, pundits are scrambling to speculate on who is to blame. Inaccurate media reports quickly identified a Saudi national as a person of interest, but the man was later cleared of any association with the attacks - he was merely a victim of the explosion.
"The fact that this individual was brown, Arab-looking and on site put him within the terrorist caricature that people have in mind," says Beydoun.
An outpouring of tweets and blog posts have also been circling the social sphere. Many of the messages are ones of support, but several expose a xenophobic undercurrent in the American response to the tragedy. Tweets with racist expletives blamed "sand monkeys" and "towel heads" for the attacks, while the word "Muslim" even trended on Twitter this week.
While many people say it shouldn't matter what the culprit's faith or ethnicity is, Beydoun knows it will sadly have major significance.
"Does it matter if it's a Caucasian woman?" he asks. "No, probably not. But does it matter to the millions of Muslims living in the US? Yes, it does. It has very practical significance on the trajectory of our entire lives, and on the frightening backlash against entire communities."
For Hussain, while she's frustrated with some of the reactions since the bombings, she's overwhelmed by the support from the Boston community and remains hopeful for a fair outcome of the FBI investigation.
"My hope is that regardless whether the person who committed these terrible acts is white, Muslim or black, people will remain understanding," she says.
"People will understand that the bombings have nothing to do with any group or religion."
It's a hope she clings to while watching the news with anticipation.


French centre-right presidential candidate Francois Fillon has denounced a left-wing "institutional coup d'etat" as he faces mounting pressure to quit the presidential race.

He has become mired in a scandal surrounding claims that his Welsh-born wife Penelope was paid large sums over a number of years for "fake jobs".
Far-right rival Marine Le Pen said he had lost voters' confidence.
And there was stinging criticism from his own side too.
One Republican MP, Georges Fenech, said that Mr Fillon's victory in the party's primaries in November had become "obsolete". He said the affair was not just a judicial matter but an ethical and moral one, and an urgent decision had to be made.
Recently the favourite to win the presidency in elections in April and May, he has now slipped behind Ms Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron. Mr Fillon said he would fight the accusations "to the end" on Wednesday but commentators suggested his fate was slipping out of his hands.
Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon ridiculed the idea of a left-wing coup, saying it was "a bit curious to search for plots where there aren't any".
Francois Fillon's chances of political survival are hanging on a thread, and if you want to know why just listen to French talk radio.
This morning on RMC when broadcaster Jean-Jacques Bourdin took calls about Penelopegate, the mood was angry.
Caller after caller pointed up the vast difference in their own salary, and the money - up to €10,000 ($10,800; £8,540) a month - which Penelope Fillon took as her husband's parliamentary assistant. "And I actually work!" said one.
And in the Republican Party, what was unthinkable a few days ago is now outwardly mooted: that Francois Fillon may need to step down and be replaced.
Read more from Hugh: Can Fillon survive?
And more on this story:
TV news channels in France were running constant coverage of Mr Fillon's plight, which began a week ago with an expose in satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine and has become the main story in the campaign.
The newspaper alleged on Tuesday that Penelope Fillon had been paid €830,000 (£710,000; $900,000) for working as a parliamentary aide first to her husband and then to his replacement as MP, Marc Joulaud, far more than it had originally claimed.
That was on top of the €100,000 that it says she was paid by a literary review owned by a wealthy friend of her husband called Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere.


The White House has hired its first openly transgender full-time member of staff, officials have confirmed.

Raffi Freedman-Gurspan started working as an outreach and recruitment director for presidential staff on Tuesday.
Her commitment to transgender rights reflects "the values of this administration," a senior White House official said.
It is President Barack Obama's latest move in support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.
"Raffi Freedman-Gurspan demonstrates the kind of leadership this administration champions," said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president.
Ms Freedman-Gurspan previously worked as a policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality (NTCE).
Her appointment to the White House has been hailed as an important step by key members of the LGBT community.
"Our government works best when it reflects the reality of who we are as Americans," said Aisha Moodie-Mills, the head of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund and Institute.
The Department of Defense is reviewing its ban on transgender men and women from serving in the military, and the White House has said it welcomes that move.


A £1,000 reward is being offered after a horse was stabbed and then had to be destroyed.

Tilly was found to have suffered a single stab wound to the stomach in a field off Broadcar Road in Hoyland near Barnsley on Sunday.
The RSPCA and a vet were called after the grey mare was found by a dog walker just before 07:00 BST.
Owner Michelle Steeples said she had been left "devastated" by the attack on Tilly who was ready to be rehomed.
The RSPCA and South Yorkshire Police has launched a joint investigation.
"It was like something out of a horror film," Ms Steeples said.
Tilly was being cared and trained for by Ms Steeples after getting a reputation for being "difficult".
"She was making great progress. She was just about ready to get rehomed," Ms Steeples said.
Ms Steeples has set up a Justice for Tilly Facebook group and the reward has been offered by a stranger who heard what had happened.
"The vet confirmed it was a deliberate wound," she said. "It was one single stab wound to the underside of her stomach.
"The wound was about two or three hours old."
RSPCA inspector John Lawson said: "The poor horse, a very sweet small grey mare, was suffering greatly and was put to sleep on humane grounds."


A potential change in the law relating to rape cases will be considered in the wake of the Ched Evans case, the government has said.

The Chesterfield striker was cleared of rape at Cardiff Crown Court after a retrial on 14 October.
But Labour has condemned the decision to allow the jury to hear details about the sexual history of the complainant.
Attorney General Jeremy Wright told the Commons it was not "routinely used" in such cases, but there was "a concern".
Mr Wright made the comment on Thursday when questioned by Labour's legal affairs spokesman Nick Thomas-Symonds.
In 2012, Mr Evans was found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel room in Rhuddlan, Denbighshire, the previous year. He served half of a five-year prison term.
But that conviction was quashed on appeal last April and he was found not guilty of the same charge at the subsequent retrial.
Mr Wright said: "We need to understand more about the decision in this particular case, we need to understand whether a change in the law is appropriate."
He said, if a change was not appropriate, the government should look at the guidance given to judges about when evidence is admissible and the instructions judges give to jurors about how it should be used.
"I think we need to do all those things before we're in a position to understand what, if any, changes are needed," he added.
During the retrial, the jury heard evidence from two men who had intimate relationships with the complainant around the time of the alleged offence of which Mr Evans was accused.
Both described "sexual behaviour" similar to that Mr Evans said he had observed during his encounter with her.
The decision to allow the details before the jury was heavily criticised by some, including blogger Jean Hatchet who said it was "callous and cruel".
It was also criticised by former solicitor general Vera Baird QC.
After the conclusion of the trial, BBC home affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani said defence lawyers are usually barred from cross-examining an alleged victim about their sexual behaviour or history to protect them from "humiliating treatment".
But there can be "exceptional reasons" to ditch that rule in the interests of a fair trial, he added.


Two Conwy county hotel workers have been sacked after killing a feral cat.

The Royal Oak Hotel in Betws-y-Coed initially claimed the cat, named Cali by a neighbour who said she cared for it, was "humanely euthanised".
Following an angry response in the area, owner Glenn Evans apologised and said he should have acted sooner.
He added: "We didn't in any way condone what had occurred... and, in hindsight, we should have dealt with the two individuals concerned."
An RSPCA spokesman said: "We can confirm that we are investigating reports about the death of a cat in the Betws-y-Coed area."
An online petition has been launched calling for those responsible to be prosecuted and had attracted more than 35,700 supporters by Friday evening.
Mr Evans added: "We are sorry for what has happened and embarrassed that we didn't deal with the situation as quickly as we should have.
"We didn't in any way condone what had occurred but were waiting for the RSPCA to get back to us."
The hotel owner said staff who had "no knowledge or involvement in what happened" had been threatened in the wake of the killing.


A large number of BT phone directories have been dumped at a beauty spot.

The discovery was made by a TV crew member looking for filming locations in the Wye Valley area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) in Monmouthshire.
The 2015 directories were found with other fly-tipped rubbish in the Livox quarry between Chepstow and Tintern.
BT said the directories may have been dropped off by contractors for delivery but taken by unknown people before local distributors arrived.
A spokesman said the relevant division would be informed.
The land agent for the site has also been told.
Crimestoppers said statistics showed there were 31,000 incidents of fly-tipping in Wales in 2014-15, with 80% of incidents involving household waste and clear-up costs estimated at Â£1.8m.
Andrew Murphy from the charity said: "The cost of clearing up is only one part of the problem.
"Fly-tipping is a blight on our communities. It poses a threat to humans and wildlife, it damages our environment and it spoils our beautiful towns and countryside."


Annual profits at Debenhams have fallen 24.8%, reflecting the impact on sales of last year's warm winter weather.

The UK's second largest department store chain reported pre-tax profits of Â£87.2m in the year to 30 August.  Like-for-like sales were up 1%.
Online sales increased by 17.6% to Â£430.7m, accounting for 15.3% of the total in 2014 and up from 13.2% in the previous year.
Chief executive Michael Sharp said the first half of the year was challenging.
Trading is improving, he said, although consumers' disposable income was still under pressure.
He said: "After the challenges we faced in the first half, everyone in the business has been focused on addressing the issues we identified and on delivering on the priorities we set out in April to deliver long-term sustainable growth.
"Our performance in the second half reflects this, with operating profit up on the previous year," Mr Sharp said.
But he added: "Customers tell us that although they are encouraged by economic improvements, this has yet to translate into higher disposable income and the market remains tough."
Debenhams shares have tumbled more than 20% this year, coming after a profit warning and heavy discounting to shift stock.
As part of a turnaround plan, Mr Sharp has been cutting costs and introducing new concessions in Debenhams stores, including Sports Direct, Costa, and Mothercare. Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley has built an 11% interest in Debenhams.


1535 - Indigenous Araucanian people successfully resist first Spanish invasion of Chile.
1541 - Pedro de Valdivia begins Spanish conquest and founds Santiago.
1553 - Araucanians capture and kill Valdivia.
1810 - Junta in Santiago proclaims autonomy for Chile following the overthrow of the king of Spain by Napoleon.
1814 - Spain regains control of Chile.
1817 - Spanish defeated by Army of the Andes led by Jose de San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins at the battles of Chacabuco and Maipu.
1818 - Chile becomes independent with O'Higgins as supreme leader.
1823-30 - O'Higgins forced to resign; civil war between liberal federalists and conservative centralists ends with conservative victory.
1851-61 - President Manuel Montt liberalises constitution and reduces privileges of landowners and church.
1879-84 - Chile increases its territory by one third after it defeats Peru and Bolivia in War of the Pacific.
Late 19th century - Pacification of Araucanians paves way for European immigration; large-scale mining of nitrate and copper begins.
Chile's first socialist president. Inaugurated November 1970, died in September 1973 military coup
1891 - Civil war over constitutional dispute between president and congress ends in congressional victory, with president reduced to figurehead.
1925 - New constitution increases presidential powers and separates church and state.
1927 - General Carlos Ibanez del Campo seizes power and establishes dictatorship.
1938-46 - Communists, Socialists and Radicals form Popular Front coalition and introduce economic policies based on US New Deal.
1948-58 - Communist Party banned.
1952 - Gen Carlos Ibanez elected president with promise to strengthen law and order.
1964 - Eduardo Frei Montalva, Christian Democrat, elected president and introduces cautious social reforms, but fails to curb inflation.
Thousands were killed, tortured or exiled under his rule
1970 - Salvador Allende becomes world's first democratically elected Marxist president and embarks on an extensive programme of nationalisation and radical social reform.
1973 - Chief of Staff General Augusto Pinochet ousts Allende in coup and proceeds to establish a brutal dictatorship.
1988 - Gen Pinochet loses a referendum on whether he should remain in power.
1989-90 - Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin wins presidential election; Gen Pinochet steps down in 1990 as head of state but remains commander-in-chief of the army.
1994-95 - Eduardo Frei succeeds Aylwin as president and begins to reduce the military's influence in government.
1998 - Gen Pinochet retires from the army and is made senator for life but is arrested in the UK at the request of Spain on murder charges.
2000 March - British Home Secretary Jack Straw decides that Gen Pinochet is not fit to be extradited. Gen Pinochet returns to Chile.
Socialist Ricardo Lagos is elected president.
2000 onwards - Chilean courts strip Gen Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution several times, but attempts to make him stand trial for alleged human rights offences fail, with judges usually citing concerns over the general's health.
2002 July - Gen Pinochet resigns from his post as a lifelong senator.
2004 May - President Lagos signs a law giving Chileans the right to divorce, despite opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.
Manuel Contreras, former head of secret police, is jailed for 15 years over the disappearance and death of a journalist in 1974.
2005 May - 45 young soldiers perish in a blizzard, prompting calls for an end to compulsory military service.
2005 July - Senate approves changes to the Pinochet-era constitution, including one which restores the president's right to dismiss military commanders.
2005 December - Presidential elections. Socialist Michelle Bachelet gains the most votes but fails to win more than 50% support, forcing a second-round vote against conservative billionaire and former senator Sebastian Pinera.
2006 January - Michelle Bachelet wins the second round of presidential elections to become Chile's first woman president and the fourth consecutive head of state from the centre-left Concertacion coalition. She takes office in March.
2006 August - Chile and China sign a free-trade deal, Beijing's first in South America.
2006 December - Pinochet dies.
2007 January - President Bachelet signs a decree allowing the morning-after contraceptive pill to be given to girls as young as 14 without their parents' consent.
2007 March - Ongoing protests in the capital Santiago over chaos following the introduction of a new transport system.
2007 June - Government agrees to pay compensation to the families of 12 victims of Pinochet.
2008 January - Peru files a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in a bid to settle a long-standing dispute over maritime territory with neighbouring Chile.
2008 May - Unexpected eruption of Chaiten volcano which has been dormant for 9,000 years. Authorities order complete evacuation of two towns in Patagonian region.
2008 September - Emergency declared in parts of southern Chile where eight people were killed in torrential rain and widespread flooding.
2008 October - Local elections signal that the political right, long out of office in Chile, may be gaining ground ahead of next year's presidential poll.
2009 February - President Bachelet makes the first visit to Cuba by a Chilean leader in almost four decades.
2009 October - Relations with Peru are strained further after Chile stages a military exercise in the north, close to the disputed border.
2009 November - A new diplomatic row erupts after a Peruvian air force officer is accused of spying for the Chilean military.
2010 January - Right-wing candidate Sebastian Pinera defeats former President Eduardo Frei in presidential election, ending 20 years of rule by the left-wing Concentracion coalition.
2010 February - Hundreds die and widespread damage is caused as massive earthquake strikes central Chile. The 8.8 magnitude quake is the biggest to hit the country in 50 years.
Miners were brought to safety after being trapped underground for three months
How drama unfolded
2010 March - President Pinera is inaugurated, and pledges to tackle the consequences of the earthquake.
2010 October - Thirty-three miners trapped deep underground for 69 days are winched to safety, watched by TV audiences around the world.
2010 December - President Pinera promises penal reform after a fire at an overcrowded Santiago jail claims the lives of 81 prisoners.
2011 May - Trade unions organise demonstration in Valparaiso in protest at government's environmental, education and labour policies.
2011 July - Thousands of high school and university students take to the streets to demand a more equal education system. Copper miners strike over government plans to restructure the industry.
2012 January - Government sparks row by changing designation of Gen Pinochet's government from "dictatorship" to "regime" in school textbooks.
2012 April - Congress passes much-debated anti-discrimination law, which names discrimination because of sexual orientation as an offence.
2012 December - A judge orders the arrest of eight former army officers over 1973 murder of well-known left-wing singer Victor Jara, who was killed only days after the coup that brought Gen Pinochet to power.
2013 April - Bolivia files a lawsuit against Chile at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to reclaim access to the Pacific Ocean. Bolivia lost access to the coastline in a 19th century war with Chile, leaving it landlocked ever since.
2013 May - Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru agree to scrap most of the tariffs on trade between their countries, hailing the move as an historic step towards regional integration.
2013 September - Body representing Chilean judges makes unprecedented apology for actions of its members under military rule in the 1970s and 1980s, saying judges failed to protect victims of state abuse.
2013 December - Left-wing candidate Michelle Bachelet wins second round of voting in presidential election.
2014 September - A blast in a packed Santiago metro station injures 14 people, in what the government terms an act of terrorism.
2014 October - Tens of thousands of parents march in protest against plans to phase out subsidised schools as part of President Michelle Bachelet's flagship education reform.
2014 November - Two retired Chilean colonels are sentenced to jail for torturing the father of President Michelle Bachelet in the months that followed the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973.
A Chilean court orders the state to pay million of dollars of compensation to 30 former political prisoners who were held on a remote island in the extreme south of the country during the military rule of Augusto Pinochet.
2015 February - President Bachelet announces plans to end Chile's total ban on abortions.
2015 October - President Bachelet announces the creation of two new marine reserves in the South Pacific. One will be around Easter Island. Commercial fishing will be banned there.


The world's biggest National Hunt horse racing event canters into Cheltenham this week, providing a huge financial boost to both the sport and the local economy.

The Cheltenham Festival is the pinnacle of the sport's jump racing calendar, attracting huge crowds and interest not only within the UK, but also from Ireland and further afield.
The event brings in more than £20m through ticket sales, hospitality, sponsorship and other income, and there is some £4.3m in prize money on offer, the most of any jump festival in the world.  Meanwhile the four-day event is also estimated to bring in £100m to the wider Gloucestershire economy.
The 28-race steeplechase event is run by the Jockey Club and culminates in the Gold Cup day on Friday.
On average some 65,000 people will attend the event each day, spending money on accommodation, food and drink, and betting.
Indeed such is the scale of the event that work on it starts the previous autumn.
"At the Jockey Club we reinvest all the money we make back into horseracing," Cheltenham Racecourse managing director Ian Renton tells the BBC.
"So Cheltenham contributes a significant proportion of our total revenues for the year - it is very important for us to be able to put this money back into racing."
In financial terms, the event is the UK's second largest racing festival after the flat racing at Royal Ascot, which lasts one day longer.
The Jockey Club is the largest commercial group in British horseracing, with other assets including Aintree, Epsom Downs and Newmarket racecourses. It is governed by Royal Charter, with all profits invested back into the sport.
This year's festival is the first to be covered by ITV, as part of a four-year deal with The Jockey Club that will see horse racing have the most free-to-air coverage of any sport in the UK.
The 2017 gathering is also the second since the £45m revamp of the course, which included building a new grandstand.
That investment in facilities has enabled organisers to nearly double their income from hospitality, from £4.7m four years ago, to £9m now.
"We have also installed a very pro-active sales team," says Mr Renton. "We have also brought a lot of our sales in-house from agencies, which we believe has allowed us to provide excellent value for money."
Hospitality prices start at £230, up to £900 for packages on Gold Cup day.
Albert and Michel Roux Jnr are hosting their premium Chez Roux pop-up restaurant across all four days of the festival.
Hospitality, along with ticket sales, are the two biggest income strands at Cheltenham, with other money coming from sponsorship, food and drink sales on the course, and also media rights.
Event sponsors include Bentley, Boodles, JCB, RSE, Guinness, Ryanair, St James Place, and Timico which backs the Gold Cup.
Outside of the racing arena, academics at the University of Gloucestershire's Centre of Contemporary Accounting Research estimate that the four days of racing brings more than £100m to the Gloucestershire economy.
"That does not include spending at the racecourse itself but expenditure on things like accommodation, food and drink in the town," says Mr Renton.
"Some locals might think it is a nuisance when a quarter of a million people descend on them, but most are very tolerant and I think they realise the benefits the festival brings to the economy."
The report also points to how many people come from Ireland, stating "they make a holiday of it - they'll book up a year ahead, and save up and spend their money here".
It is estimated that the Irish make up roughly a third of the festival race-goers.
"That figure does not include UK-based Irish who will be attending," says Mr Renton.
The festival comes at an important time for UK horse racing.
The new TV deal will see the ITV main channel showing more than 40 days a year of the sport, including all the top-tier fixtures, and around 60 more days will be shown on ITV4.
In addition a new "tripartite" governance agreement for the sport has been drawn up by governing body the BHA, the racecourses and racing participants.
"British racing has a really effective governance structure now in place that gives the three stakeholder groupings in the sport a proper say on the big decisions," says Jockey Club chief executive Simon Bazalgette.
"That uniting purpose and structure we've all committed to means the sport can make progress without being bogged down in committees or being entirely at the discretion of one super-powerful individual or organisation."
Another area of focus for the sport is making it appealing to the next generation.
"We need to find ways to be interesting and relevant to young people on their terms, including through digital channels, new technologies and the mainstream appeal of our media partners," says Mr Bazalgette.
Meanwhile, from April, British horse racing will benefit from mandatory contributions from all major gambling businesses that take bets on the sport in the UK.
It means any gambling business that takes bets from consumers based in the UK on races held in this country will pay 10% of their gross profits from racing - above the first £500,000 they make - to support the sport and the equine industry.
It will be enforced via a reformed statutory Horserace Betting Levy, which Mr Bazalgette says will "provide a level playing field for all betting firms to compete and long-term certainty and sustainability for British racing".


New laws aimed at resolving disputes between neighbours over the height of garden hedges are set to come into effect across Scotland.

The High Hedges (Scotland) Act 2013 will provide a solution when problems are caused by hedges which grow over two metres tall and block out light.
The bill defines what a high hedge is and sets out a process to resolve disagreements between neighbours.
It will come into force on 1 April, following unanimous backing from MSPs.
Local Government and Planning Minister Derek Mackay said the legislation would "provide a route by which neighbours involved in a dispute can resolve the issue".
He said: "Unlike fences or walls that require planning permission if they are over two metres tall, there is no restriction on planting trees or shrubs to form a hedge, which, if planted in an unsuitable location, or not maintained, can cause disputes between neighbours.
"There remains an expectation that people should take all reasonable steps to resolve the issue themselves. However, there may be occasions when this isn't possible.
"In those situations, the act will allow people to make an application to their local authority to intervene, and if the hedge is a barrier to light, then action can be taken."
The act will give homeowners and occupiers the right to apply to their local council for a high hedge notice and empowers the authority to enforce decisions made in relation to high hedges in their local area.
Guidance has been issued to all of Scotland's councils on their responsibilities under the act. They will act as independent and impartial adjudicators, taking into account the positions of each party in a dispute, before making a decision.
If householders fail to comply with the new law, the council could use its powers to enter the land, carry out work on the hedge itself and charge the owner for any expenses.
Laws on high hedges have been adopted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as on the Isle of Man.


A teenager who murdered two strangers is to appeal against his sentence which ruled he must serve at least 27 years.

James Fairweather, 17, was given two life sentences for killing James Attfield, 33, and Nahid Almanea, 31, in Colchester in 2014.
Mr Attfield was stabbed more than 100 times while Saudi Arabian student Ms Almanea was stabbed with a bayonet.
Simon Spence, QC, said his client was appealing against the "excessive" minimum sentence.
For more on this and other stories, visit BBC Essex Live
Fairweather, from Colchester, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but was found guilty of murder after a trial at Guildford Crown Court.
His defence argued he had been bullied at school and the killings were a result of a combination of his autism, paranoia and voices in his head.
The prosecution and jury rejected the claims.
Mr Spence said the application would be considered by a high court judge who would either grant leave for a full appeal or reject the application.
A date is yet to be set for the hearing.


A council owned car park is to be used to accommodate the surviving families of a County Dublin traveller's site fire in which five adults and five children died.

The blaze broke out at the Carrickmines halting site in the Republic of Ireland on 10 October.
It is understood it started at a pre-fabricated building and spread quickly to a nearby unit.
Surviving families will be sheltered at Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown council park.
Willie Lynch and Tara Gilbert,  their daughters Kelsey and Jodie, Thomas and Sylvia Connors and their children Jim, Christy and six-month-old Mary died.
Jimmy Lynch, 39, a brother of Willie, also died in the blaze.
The blaze is not being treated as suspicious.
On Tuesday, a message of sympathy from Pope Francis was read at a funeral Mass for five of those who died.


Four of the biggest US banks have committed to helping maintain London's position as a global financial hub after the UK leaves the European Union.

Since the referendum vote there have been concerns that banks would reduce their staff and offices in the country.
In a statement the banks and Chancellor George Osborne said they would work to ensure London "retains its position".
However, they did not say whether this meant that they would keep the same number of jobs and offices in the UK.
Ahead of the UK's referendum on the EU, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, said the bank could move 4,000 jobs out of the UK if the country voted to leave the EU.
The banks signing the statement included JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, as well as the UK's Standard Chartered, which makes most of its profit in Asia.
"Today we met and agreed that we would work together to build on all this with a common aim to help London retain its position as the leading international financial centre," the statement said.
According to Aaron Klein, a fellow at Brookings Institute these statements are meant to "instil confidence during periods of market turmoil."
"Yes, London will remain a financial services hub, as it has been one for a long time. But the size and scope of that hub could be very different depending on how things shake out with Brexit," he said.
Other EU countries have shown signs of trying to attract these jobs to their cities since the vote. On Wednesday, France announced it would put in place Europe's most favourable tax code for expats.
The banks and Chancellor Osborne acknowledged that London's role may have to change, but pledged to keep the city an attractive place to do business.
"We will also work together to identify the new opportunities that may now become available so that Britain remains one of the most attractive places in the world to do business," the statement read.


Jeremy Corbyn has told British voters they don't have to accept that inequality and injustice are inevitable - and things "can and must change".

In his first conference speech after becoming Labour leader, Mr Corbyn vowed to create a "kinder politics, a more caring society".
But he also attacked David Cameron's "shocking broken promises" and said Labour would "challenge austerity".
And he restated his belief in getting rid of Britain's nuclear weapons.
Mr Corbyn arrived on stage in Brighton to a lengthy standing ovation from Labour delegates and his shadow cabinet, before delivering a 59 minute speech that eschewed the traditional section on the leader's family and background.
There were jokes - he took a swipe at some of the press coverage he has received since his surprise Labour leadership victory - but he also spoke at length, and off the cuff, about his values and how he planned to change his party.
There were no policy announcements but he covered a broad range of issues including:
Following the speech, it was revealed a large section was based on a blog written in 2011.
Speechwriter Richard Heller wrote the passages and they were offered to previous Labour leader Ed Miliband, but not used.
Mr Heller told the BBC he had written to offer them to Mr Corbyn shortly after his election as leader, and had been "surprised" and "very glad" they were eventually used. He had been informed by Mr Corbyn's office on Tuesday afternoon that the passages were to be used, he added.
In his speech, Mr Corbyn addressed head-on David Cameron's claim that he represented a threat to the security of British families.
"How dare these people talk about security for families and people in Britain? There's no security for the 2.8 million households in Britain forced into problem debt by stagnating wages and the Tory record of the longest fall in living standards since records began," he said.
"And that's the nub of it. Tory economic failure. An economy that works for the few, not for the many."
The thirst in the hall for him to do well was tangible.
Some members of the party have wanted to hear a speech like this for years.
And although he never really expected to be doing one of the most high-profile, hardest jobs in politics, if Jeremy Corbyn was nervous, he didn't show it.
And goodness me, the audience was pleased to see him, applauding for two minutes on their feet before he even said a word.
Inside the hall his clarion calls, as he even highlighted, "strong message here", were eagerly received, even though I caught the eyes of a fair number of stony-faced MPs.
Read Laura's blog in full
He told Labour activists he was "unapologetic about reforming our economy to challenge inequality and protect workers better" and said people should not have to accept what was given to them by global corporations, and there should be no limit on what they could achieve.
"We are a rich country. These things are not necessary or inevitable. They can and must be changed."
He said most British people shared his values, adding: "I know there's a big British majority for building a more equal society, for eliminating poverty and homelessness."
Contrary to some predictions, Mr Corbyn did not use the speech to issue an apology for the Labour Party's role in taking Britain to war in Iraq under Tony Blair.
But he told the packed hall: "It didn't help our national security when we went to war with Iraq in defiance of the United Nations and on a false prospectus."
And he signalled his opposition to any government attempt to secure Parliament's support for military action in Syria, saying a "diplomatic strategy" via the United Nations could secure peace.
He repeated his opposition to renewing the Trident nuclear weapons system, a stance not shared by his shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle, who he has asked to lead a review on the issue, but added the jobs and skills of people working in the defence industry had to be protected "so that we gain from this, we do not lose from this".
And he attacked the "commentariat" for reporting "splits" in his top team, saying "this is grown-up, real politics where real people debate real issues".
To a standing ovation, he added: "Cut out the personal abuse, cut out the cyber bullying, and especially cut out the misogynistic abuse.
"Let's get on with bringing real values back into politics."
His approach of allowing shadow Cabinet members to speak freely on issues where they disagree with him will continue.
"I am not imposing leadership lines. I don't believe anyone has a monopoly on wisdom - we all have ideas and a vision of how things can be better," he said.
"I want open debate, I will listen to everyone, I firmly believe leadership is listening."
The "huge mandate" he had been given as leader was a "mandate for change", he said
"It was a vote for change in the way we do politics, in the Labour Party and the country."
BBC deputy political editor James Landale said the speech was "directed at the Labour Party itself", with "not much of a message for the outside world", but added that a reference to aspiration was "the germ of an interesting idea".
For the Conservatives, Justice Secretary Michael Gove said: "The Labour leader's policies to borrow more, print money and put up taxes on people's jobs and incomes would wreck our economy. That would weaken our nation's defences, damage our NHS and hurt our country's working people - with the poorest hit the most."
UKIP called the speech "fantastical", saying: "His politics are underpinned by a naive and optimistic view of the world that is so shortsighted it is frankly dangerous.
"His words are like inspirational memes. Beguiling as they may be they all belong to a virtual world."
A succession of union leaders welcomed the speech, saying there was now a "true" opposition.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said Mr Corbyn had "brilliantly answered his critics", while the Fire Brigades Union's Matt Wrack said the speech could mark a "turning point in British politics".
Business groups questioned some of Mr Corbyn's message, however.
The British Chambers of Commerce said businesses would "not like the thought of an interventionist state propping up failing companies" and renationalising utilities, while the CBI said it shared Labour's aim of spreading the proceeds of growth but "we don't recognise Mr Corbyn's characterisation of the economy".


An undertaker has issued an apology after the wrong body was taken to a funeral in Powys.

The error meant mourners sat through the full service at St Cadfan Church, Llangadfan, on Friday before the error was detected.
It was only noticed when flowers were removed from the casket at the grave and the wrong name was on the plaque.
R G Peate Funeral Directors of Welshpool apologised for "the genuine mistake".
The funeral was able to continue when the caskets were swapped and the correct body was buried.
Funeral director Geraint Peate said: "Having provided a caring service to the bereaved of this community for over 40 years without a single adverse incident I am personally devastated by this event.
"It was obviously deeply distressing for the family, to those attending the funeral and also to myself and my staff who were present."
Friends and family of the dead person told Radio Cymru's Post Cyntaf the mistake was like "something out of a film" and were "deeply shocked that such a thing had happened".


Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a special military task force to combat cattle rustlers in the north-western state of Zamfara.

The armed gangs are based in a forest, from where they raid nearby villages.
Defence Minister Mansur Dan Ali told the BBC that about 1,000 troops would be deployed immediately, with more would joining later.
Hundreds of people have been killed in villages in and around Zamfara in the last three years.
President Buhari has faced criticism for not focusing earlier on what is being described as the country's third security crisis, behind the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east and the growing militant attacks on oils pipelines in the southern Niger Delta region.
Africa Live: More on this and other African stories
There are fears that fighters from Islamist militant group Boko Haram may have joined the gangs in Zamfara.
A large swathe of forest spreading from Zamfara to neighbouring states is now referred to as the "New Sambisa", after the forest where Boko Hararm militants are holed up in the north-eastern Borno state, reports BBC Hausa's Aliyo Tanko.
Thousands have been forced to flee their homes following the violence in Zamfara and surrounding states of Katsina, Kaduna, Niger and Kano.
Residents of the affected areas have accused the local authorities of failing to defend them.


A teenager is seriously ill after she was swept away with the tide off the Lancashire coast.

The 16-year-old girl, from Wigan, was paddling with another girl, aged 14, at North Quay in Heysham when they got into difficulty at about 16:00 BST.
The older girl was rescued by a passing small boat and is in a serious condition, police said.
The younger girl is said to be shaken and suffered superficial injuries.
Sgt Mark Finch, of Lancaster Police, said: "The girls were fortunate enough that they were spotted getting into some difficulty and were able to get back to the shore, but one of the girls remains very poorly at hospital as a result of the incident.
"This is a timely reminder to anyone enjoying the school holidays and the good weather to remember the dangers of the tide and of open water and to enjoy them safely and responsibly."


A two-minute silence has been held to remember members of the British and Commonwealth's armed forces who have died during conflicts.

The Queen was joined by several members of the Royal Family at the Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday.
The country observed a two-minute silence as Big Ben struck the eleventh hour.
British forces across the world - including 9,500 soldiers in Afghanistan - also stood silent to remember.
The Queen laid a wreath, followed by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Cambridge.
The former chief of the defence staff, Lord Guthrie, laid a wreath on behalf of the Prince of Wales, who is in Auckland, New Zealand.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague laid a wreath on behalf of all those in the armed forces across the commonwealth who have fallen.
Veterans' representatives laid wreaths at the Cenotaph before nearly 10,000 ex-servicemen and women marched past to commemorate their fallen comrades.
This year's commemoration is the first to take place since the death of the last veteran to serve during World War I on either side, according to the Royal British Legion.
There was warm applause from the crowd as the parade marched past the war memorial, inscribed to The Glorious Dead.
The Royal British Legion's head of remembrance, Helen Hill, said the number of veterans marching had increased by 3,000 in the past five years.
"The numbers are going up, not down. There are an increasing number of associations looking after the veteran community. More and more people want to participate in the activities," she said.
Other remembrance events were held across the UK:
British servicemen and women in Helmand Province were able to attend services at remote patrol bases or checkpoints.
By Angus CrawfordBBC News
The air was cold and clear, the sky a cobalt blue and Whitehall with the Cenotaph at its heart was lined with the ranks of those who serve and those who once served.
Watching from behind the barriers around the MoD, a solitary figure pausing from his duties talking to the media. His silhouette against the sunlight throwing into sharp relief the dark metal of his prosthetic legs, lost in a roadside explosion in Afghanistan five years ago.
The two minutes silence was immaculately observed, the only thing to break the quiet the crying of gulls wheeling in the air.
The wreaths were placed gently around the base of the cenotaph and then the march past.
A glittering parade of polish and steel, of khaki, blue and black - Royal Marines and Gurkhas, Submariners and Gunners and many more in uniform.
Then thousands of veterans, men and women in civilian clothes, but with medals on their chests and cap badges gleaming on berets.
On each lapel a splash of colour, a Poppy, the symbol of remembrance, of sacrifice and thanksgiving.
Lt-Col Zac Stenning, a serving soldier, attended the Remembrance service in London for the first time.
He told BBC News he was "immensely struck by both the dignity and pride and the solemnity of the service".
He added he had lost 10 men from his Army unit in the last six months in Afghanistan, and this in particular made this Sunday an important day.
"It is that single day in the year when we stand together and as a nation we remember the commitment of our men and women of the armed forces not only as soldiers today but of the past."
Corporal of Horse Alistair Grice, from the Blues and Royals Household Cavalry Regiment, said it was a "day of remembering and a celebration of what we have and what we are fortunate to have".
The 35-year-old, from Coppull in Lancashire, who served in conflicts from Bosnia onwards said he would be remembering comrades from his unit including Trooper James Munday, who died in an explosion in Afghanistan on 15 October 2008 and Lance Corporal Jonathan Woodgate, 26, who was killed on 26 March 2010.
Cpl Grice added: "It's amazing to see how many people, not just British but foreign as well, who are here to support the British Armed Forces and what we have done in the past."
This year, Remembrance Sunday falls on 11 November itself, the date of the armistice which brought World War I to an end.
The prime minister of the Republic of Ireland and his deputy took part in Remembrance Sunday services in Northern Ireland.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was in Enniskillen and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore was in Belfast, where First Minister Peter Robinson and Secretary of State Theresa Villiers led the wreathlaying.
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones led Wales in its Remembrance Sunday commemorations in Cardiff.
Meanwhile, First Minister Alex Salmond paid tribute to the courage and commitment of Scotland's servicemen and women in Edinburgh.