Quincy and Braintree police are urging residents to be wary of individuals posing as municipal employees to gain access to their homes.

On Aug. 8, the Iacovangelos thought they were helping the city’s water department when a man, dressed in an all-blue outfit, showed up at their Quincy Center home and said he needed to test its water levels. The elderly couple accompanied him to the basement, where he turned on the faucet and instructed them to wait five to 10 minutes until the water turned blue.

“The guy said, ‘I have to report to my boss and go to the street to open some pipes,’ ’’ said Giovanna Iacovangelo, who has lived with her husband in the home for 45 years. When she went back upstairs to grab more buckets, “I saw my bedroom door open and the drawers open. I ran back down and said to my husband, Antonio, ‘This guy robbed us. They took my jewelry.’ ’’

Scammers typically target the elderly, said Sergeant Karyn Barkas, the Quincy Police Department’s public information officer. “They may see them outside working in their yard, or knock on a door and ask questions in order to determine if they are the homeowner and if anyone else is home.’’

On that same day, Braintree police said they received similar calls from residents about a man who claimed he was from the town’s water department. That imposter, however, was apparently unsuccessful in convincing homeowners to let him in.

“Code Red,’’ a reverse 911 program that passed alerts from local police departments to area residents, wasn’t an option in either town: It was discontinued in April by the Norfolk County Sheriff’s Office, which operated the program.

“It was a three-year contract, at a total of $210,000, or about $70,000 per year,’’ said Gerard Horgan, that office’s superintendent. “We looked at the utilization of the program, our budget, and we found that it wasn’t being used as frequently as we had hoped for.’’

In the program’s absence and because many elderly residents aren’t on social media, Quincy police are urging those who receive their outreach efforts to “tell their friends, family members, and elderly neighbors’’ about door-to-door scams.

Police remind residents that city and town employees will not visit a home or business unannounced, except in an emergency. Municipal employees can be identified by a uniform, a picture ID badge, and marked vehicles. If homeowners aren’t sure of a visitor’s identity, Barkas said, they can call the police non-emergency line, 617-479-1212, and an officer will visit the house to check.

Jonathan Ng can be reached at Jonathan.Ng@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanNgBOS.