Devastated mum Joanne Norbury, 53, has been left penniless after she was targeted by scammers pretending to work for Amazon.
The scammers persuaded Ms Norbury to hand over her account and bank details, claiming that would be sufficient to fix the problem.
Ms Norbury, a single mum from Truro, was told there had been a problem with her account by the person on the phone.
Ms Norbury’s son Nathaniel explained that his mum is not especially tech-savvy, and did not expect what came next – reports Cornwall Live.
Not long after the cold call on December 9 2021, Ms Norbury was told by her bank that three large suspicious transactions totalling around £1,500 had been taken from her account.
Her account was frozen, and Natwest told her the money would not be replaced because she had failed to protect it herself.
This sum of £1,500, 27-year-old Nathaniel said, was virtually every penny she had to her name.
“It’s everything she had,” Nathaniel added. “When I first saw her after it happened, she was really shaken up.
“I went over after work, and she just kept randomly bursting into tears. I’ve never seen my mum like that.
“She was scared to leave the house as it is because of Covid and saw her home as her safe place. Now she doesn’t even feel safe there either. It’s a nightmare.”
Ms Norbury is on benefits and the money in her account was needed for rent – roughly £700 – with what was…