It comes after several residents reported receiving calls from a man claiming to be a police officer who was raising money for an anti-drugs education program called STREETWISE.

Smythes Creek woman Marlene Carlyle, who runs a small cleaning business, said a man calling himself Daniel phoned her on a mobile last Friday. 

“He had his spiel worked out down pat – it was that good,” she said.

“It was about a program bringing awareness to the kids of Ballarat about the problems of drinking and drugs.

“When I asked if he could email more information he said I needed to give him an answer on which ‘corporate package’ I wanted and to give him a credit card to lock in the deal.”

But Ms Carlyle became suspicious and immediately reported the incident to police.

In response, Ballarat police told The Courier no officers had been calling people for donations.

Ms Carlyle’s son-in-law believes he was defrauded by the same scammers last year, who also said they were police officers working on behalf of STREETWISE.

Several others in Ballarat took to Facebook to say they had been targeted.

There have been several other phone scams in the city over recent years, including people claiming to be from Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has also warned people to be aware of phone calls from scammers pretending to be from the Department of Human Services.

To report a scam, head to scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam.