Nottinghamshire County Council has issued a warning to residents about the latest cold call scam that it has been made aware of.

On a social media post, the Council advised locals to be "alert to cold callers offering home repair work".

The post continued: "Our Trading Standards team is warning residents to be wary of anyone coming to the door offering fake surveys to check for signs of toxic mould.

"In some cases, unscrupulous scammers have used high-pressure sales tactics to trick householders into paying 'admin fees' of £50-£250, which they say are necessary to secure a government energy-efficiency grant.

"The scammers then fail to return to carry out work, and victims are unable to contact them to get their money back."

The council's top tip for residents to prevent themselves from being caught out by scams is to avoid buying anything from anyone on the doorstep.

One suggestion to help with this is for people to display a 'no uninvited callers' sign on their front door or window to deter would be scammers from coming to their doorstep.

Residents are also advised to ignore text messages or phone calls offering home repair work as a lot of the time these are sent by scammers seeking to steal money or personal details.

Anyone who thinks they or someone they know has been the victim of a fraudster offering home repairs, is urged to report it to Action Fraud which can be done by clicking here and following the instructions on the webpage.