A warning has been issued following reports of bogus police officers operating in the Stroud area.

According to a neighbourhood alert issue by Stroud Police, there has been an influx of incidents in Stroud and the surrounding areas of scammers calling victims pretending to have apprehended offenders fraudulently using the victim's debit cards.

They then persuade people they are genuine by giving bogus collar numbers of make belief officers and telling victims to dial 999 to confirm their identity.

However, they do not hang up the phone their end so are still connected. Someone else then comes on the phone confirming the are a legitimate officer even though they are not.

They then ask for details of the victims bank cards, bank account details and in some cases have been known to send a courier to their victims houses to collect the cards.

If you receive such a call contact the police immediately.