Scammers stole more than £2,000 from a grieving widow's bank account after pretending to work for Amazon. Pensioner Margaret Eggett, from Livingston in Scotland, received a text from a number she did not recognise informing her that she had paid £79.99 to the online retailers.
Knowing she did not hold an account with Amazon, the 68-year-old gran called the number to query the message. Margaret, who has lived alone since her husband Michael died from pneumonia last year, then received an apology on the other end of the phone – but it was from a person only posing as an Amazon employee.
To receive a refund, she was subsequently instructed to download the AnyDesk app, which allows another person to remotely access your device if you provide them with a code. Moments later, Margaret realised that two payments of £999.99 and £1,080 had been taken from her account, which left her overdrawn and in debt just weeks before she was set to go on a cruise of the Mediterranean.
She told the Daily Record : "Now I've been left in debt. I've only got £400 left on my overdraft.
"I've been in some state over it all. I just feel like I'm not getting anywhere."
Margaret made fraud claims to her bank Santander, but her complaints have been rejected, despite her feeling that the transaction should have been flagged up by their security systems and stopped. Santander are said to have believed that the activity on her account was legitimate as the scammers had used her name as a reference for the transfer.
Having had no joy with her bank, a desperate Margaret has now turned to Police Scotland for help. As well as losing her husband, she also recently had two foot operations that left her on crutches. She said: "I lost my husband and best friend Michael last year. "He was all I ever needed. He died in my arms on the fifth of March. We met when we were 17."
Santander have said they "will investigate the details of any claims made by our customers".
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