WARNINGS have been made after scammers attempted to impersonate police officers and ask elderly people to withdraw thousands of pounds from their bank accounts.

Police have warned people to be vigilant after an elderly person from Worsthorne was called by someone pretending to be a detective constable from the ‘Hammersmith police station’.

The scammer told the person around £1,000 had been taken from their account and spent in shops like Argos.

To stop any further money being taken, the person was told to remove thousands of pounds from their account with the promise a police officer would collect the cash and deposit it in a ‘safe account’.

The caller was told a taxi would be sent to collect the resident to take them to the bank.

PCSO Dave Johnson said: “The people committing these offences are the scum of the earth.

“Fortunately the caller’s daughter had recognised something was not right and the money was put back in the bank.

“This sort of action is entirely unacceptable, these scammers are preying on vulnerable elderly people.

“The police will never contact anyone regarding their bank account.

“A police officer would always visit someone regarding a crime and discuss issues in person.

“I would suggest anyone who has a call like this should hang the phone up, call 1471 and see if the person has left a number.

“They should make a note of that number and ring action fraud."

“I can’t stress enough how important it is to say the police would never call someone up regarding their bank account.”