Officers are urging people to be alert after a man in his 80s was asked to hand over thousands of pounds to a man posing as a police officer.

The incident took place on Thursday, September 26 between 10am and 4pm.

The victim, in his 80s, from Mornington Avenue, Ipswich, reported he had been having telephone conversations with a male claiming to be a detective from Norwich.

The suspect had talked the victim into withdrawing a total of £6,500 from two bank accounts.

An unknown male then knocked at the victim's home address to collect the money but the victim refused to hand over the cash.

In reaction to the offence, officers are taking the opportunity to urge residents not to hand over cash or cards to callers under similar circumstances.

Scammers are known to make calls like this to con targets into handing over money, bank cards or personal information so please be extremely cautious when dealing with unknown callers.

Talk with older friends or relatives to make them aware of these bogus approaches.

Police and bank staff will never ask you to handover money or bank cards, and they will not ask for personal information such as your bank account number or PIN.

Officers are also advising residents to keep an eye out for signals which could mean they are being scammed.

They advise that the police will never call anyone and ask them to withdraw money from your account to give to a courier, taxi driver, officer or any other party regardless of how convincing they may seem.

If anyone receives such a call, leave the landline for at least five minutes before making a call.

Fraudsters will keep the line open and have been known to play ring tones, hold music and a recorded message down the phone so the victim believes they are making a call to a legitimate number. Use a friend or neighbour's telephone instead and call Suffolk Police by dialling 101.

Police are also calling on bank staff to remain vigilant where large sums are withdrawn. Several scams have been thwarted in the past due to the good work of alert bank personnel.

Anyone with any information about this incident or saw any suspicious activity should contact Ipswich police quoting crime reference: 37/58503/19.