Two men posing as bank security officers defrauded two older women of thousands of dollars by asking them to take part in a bogus investigation, Edmonton police said Wednesday.

The frauds occurred on June 8 and 9. In both cases, the women were contacted by a man saying he was a security officer for a bank. The man knew a number of personal details about the women, including their full names and account information.

The man then went on to ask the women to help him with an investigation into a corrupt bank employee by going to their branch and withdrawing thousands of dollars. After they took out the money, they handed it over to a second man posing as a security officer who was waiting nearby. They were then told to go home and wait for a phone call.

They received a call within minutes, with the promise their money would be reimbursed. It never was.

The women, both widows, lost $6,300 altogether. Police believe the same suspects were involved.

The fact the suspects appeared to have access to the women's financial information is of particular concern to police.

"They have specific banking information — where they bank, certain branches, what type of credit cards they have," said Edmonton police Staff Sgt. Jim Peebles. "This is very unusual to us when they have this specific information and what concerns us is that possibility it might be an inside operation like a bank employee, a government agency, through Canada Revenue, the pension board, something like that."

Similar complaints have been received by police in Winnipeg, Victoria and Fredericton. Police believe there may have been other vicitms in Edmonton and Peebles encouraged them to come forward.

Police are looking for two suspects. One is an older man with a businesslike manner who made the phone calls. Police suspect he may have been calling long distance.

The second suspect — the man police believe met up with the victims — is described as Caucasian, between 30 and 40 years old, approximately five feet nine inches tall, with a medium build and weighing 160 pounds. The man has brown eyes, dark hair, an unshaven round face and was wearing glasses.

Police said he was possibly wearing a black baseball cap, dark sports jacket and a dark green button-up shirt. He was also described by the victims as friendly and soft spoken.