Detective Sergeant Jason von Tunk, of the Portland police crime investigation unit, said the 69-year-old man was recently contacted by someone claiming to be from Telstra.

"He was informed that his modem was malfunctioning and he would be reimbursed $199," he said.

"He was then contacted again and told that there had been an error and in fact $9199 had been deposited into his account.

"The victim was then asked to deposit $9000 into an ANZ Bank account, which he did."

Detective Sergeant von Tunk said the loss could have been more after the victim was contacted again and told the deposit did not go through and he was asked to deposit the $9000 again.

The victim checked and found his deposit had gone through, made follow-up inquiries with the bank and then reported the matter to police.

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Detective Sergeant von Tunk said a range of scams were constantly circulating and people needed to be aware there were criminals that preyed on the vulnerable.

"If it sounds too good to be true it usually is," he said.

"It's very likely this is an overseas operated scam and it's almost impossible to arrest anyone or for victims to get their money back," he said.

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