A SCAM victim from Milford is warning online shoppers to be on their guard this Christmas after fraudsters conned her out of £5,000.
The victim, who asked to remain anonymous, lost around a quarter of her life savings when she was targeted by criminals posing as bank officials.
After she received a bogus text message about a failed online payment, criminals pretending to be from HSBC called on her mobile requesting cash transfers as a “safety measure”.
The victim told the A&T: “I think I was off-guard because I was at Butlins with my family when the call came through but I was alone in my hotel room.
“I had a text the day before saying a shopping delivery had failed because a payment was declined and I was worried that Christmas gifts wouldn’t get here on time.
“When I got a call I thought was from the bank, I did feel uneasy about what they were saying at first, about transferring money, but they reassured me.
“They convinced me they had partnered with [online bank] Revolut as a third party account and told me I needed to make some cash transfers to them as a safety measure.”
The woman, who works as a mental health nurse and dementia care specialist, said the criminals kept her on the phone for over three hours, tricking her into making four separate transactions totalling £5,000.
She said: “When I told a friend of mine about it afterwards he said it didn’t sound right. I contacted HSBC and I called…
