The public has been warned to exercise caution if asked for personal bank details over the phone.

Gardai have issued the warning after an elderly man was scammed out of a substantial sum of money on two occasions in the same day.

A Midleton man received a call from someone purporting to be from telecommunications company, Eir, and was told that his bank details had been compromised.

Sergeant John Kelly from Fermoy Garda Station explained that the man was urged to transfer money into a Romanian bank account before, later that day, the scammers managed to access his account and transfer more money to a German account.

Investigations are ongoing

Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103's Cork Today Show, Sergeant Kelly said: "Here's one where an 83 or 84-year-old man was targeted in the Midleton area, first at 10 o'clock in the morning and he was contacted by persons who said they were from Eir.

"They deceived the injured party into believing that his personal and bank details had become compromised. They then got him to believe that Europol had identified a culprit and they needed his help by transferring his money into a Romanian bank account in order to make an arrest

"There was quite a substantial amount of money transferred into a Romanian bank account. A recall has been put in on that money but to date, I have no news on that.

"They would appear to have taken control of his computer as well and later in the day, they pursued the same thing when they accessed his online account and they moved another amount of money to a German bank account."