A north-east lifeboatman has pleaded with people not to put lives at risk by making hoax calls to the emergency services.
A major search and rescue operation costing thousands of pounds was launched in the Moray Firth amid reports someone had gone into the water.
But the 999 call is now being treated as malicious and police are investigating.
A lifeboat was launched, a coastguard search and rescue helicopter was scrambled and teams of police officers scoured the shoreline around Banff Bay.
The operation was triggered by a call made to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency claiming someone had gone into the water behind a filling station at Macduff’s Union Road.
The town’s volunteer RNLI crew launched their boat – the Lydia Macdonald and the coastguard’s Rescue 951 aircraft was also sent to the scene.
But the search was stood down after an hour when nothing was found.
The RNLI has since revealed that the coastguard is treating the call as “malicious” and that details of the incident had been passed on to police.
And Mike Rawlins, a volunteer with the lifeboat in Macduff, has now urged members of the public to use “commonsense” when they dial 999 – because they could be putting lives at risk by diverting resources away from genuine emergencies.
He said: “We could have been involved in a very different situation if someone else really did need our services somewhere else in the area.
“We’re not funded by the government, so it is a real drain on our resources.
“We rely on people to only call us out when necessary – and not to just call us out for ‘fun’.
“We had 10 volunteers who attended, from the RNLI alone, who don’t get paid, but there is a cost in mobilising the vehicle.
“You would hope that people who have a bit of commonsense wouldn’t do this kind of thing, really.
“This is the first time that I’m aware of this happening, but there are always hoax calls going on somewhere.
!We’re quite fortunate in that way, but Police Scotland are actively investigating it.”
A spokesman for the RNLI added: “The search was called off after approximately one hour after water, air and land search teams found no evidence of any persons in the water.
“The coastguard was unable to make contact with the person who made the initial report of the person going in to the water to confirm any further details.
“The coastguard believes the call may have been malicious and details have been passed to Police Scotland to investigate.”
Police have urged anyone with information to contact them on 101.