Chester Zoo is warning visitors about a ticket offer on a social media page which it describes is 'totally fake'.

The zoo reports a Facebook page called 'Zoo Tickets' has been fraudulently impersonating the zoo to promote a fake '95th birthday' ticket offer.

It adds the Facebook page goes on to ask for users' personal details and financial information.

The zoo, in a statement, said: "Any ads you’ve seen on Facebook from ‘Zoo Tickets’, and the website that has been set up to run alongside them, are entirely fake. They are impersonating us and using our good name to promote a bogus offer, which goes on to ask for your personal details and financial information.

"We’re so upset to see that someone is trying to take advantage of our amazing community, and their love for our zoo and wildlife.

"We’ve reported this scam to Facebook numerous times but so far the platform hasn’t acted to remove it. Unfortunately, getting these fake ads taken down is completely out of our hands and reliant on the people at Facebook. We’ve also referred it to the Cyber Crime Unit to see if they can assist in getting it removed.

"We’ve circulated warnings on our official channels but please, please report the ads if you see them again and help us spread the word to help others."

It is not the first time fake pages have been set up to try and con people interested in going to the zoo.

Last year the zoo had to put out another announcement that a scam page called 'The Chester Wildlife Park' was promoting a fake competition, again asking for users' personal details and financial information.

The Zoo told fact-checking website Full Fact at the time it had received "hundreds" of messages about the competition and a fake 'prize giveaway' promoted by the same scam page, which saw more than 5,600 comments where users were asked to comment 'Happy Birthday' and win VIP tickets to the zoo.

The zoo is urging anyone who sees scams of this nature to report them to Facebook and not enter their personal details or financial information.

Reputable offers would be found on the zoo's on social media channels, such as the official Chester Zoo Facebook page where Chester Zoo has 1.2 million followers and a blue tic, or its own website at chesterzoo.org.