A takeaway owner says she is "in shock" after losing more than £1,000 in a suspected scam on food delivery service Just Eat .
Sammy Davies, who runs Sammy's Milkshake Wonders in Wrexham, Wales, said she has been left "absolutely devastated" after falling victim to the suspected fraud.
The restaurant owner told the Daily Post that a convincing "hacker" gained her trust before logging in to her account and changing her business' bank details so he could pocket her profits.
Sammy, who had been in touch with Just Eat a week prior due to a fault with her ordering machine, says she had "no reason" to suspect that the call she received on Monday afternoon was not genuine.
She claims the scammer knew all of her account details, including her login and password, which led her to believe the call was legitimate.
"I'd been calling back and forth all week trying to get the issue with my machine sorted, so when he called me, I thought nothing of it," she said.
"He knew my login details, my password, my phone number; he knew that I was waiting for this new machine to arrive.
"So, I obviously believed it because he knew all my information."
But Sammy says alarm bells started to ring when she didn't receive her weekly payment later that week.
Have you been the victim of fraud? Message mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
"When it got to Friday, when I was supposed to get paid, I went on to my account," she said.
"There was nothing there, so then I started thinking what's going on?
"That's when I started panicking, that's when I first thought something's not right."
Sammy claims she called Just Eat three times, and each time she was reassured that the money would be deposited into her account shortly.
It wasn't until Friday afternoon that her worst fears were confirmed - Sammy claims a Just Eat worker told her the bank details had been changed and her week's profits had been paid into a stranger's account.
She said: "When I phoned back for the fourth time that day, the woman said straight away "I'm so sorry, I don't know why no one noticed this earlier - you've been a victim of fraud."
"When she said that, I was just in shock, I was so worried about what I was going to do. Without this money I can't pay my staff, I can't open, I could lose everything.
"I just feel like someone's come into my home and burgled me, I just don't feel safe."
Sammy claims it took Just Eat staff several days to notice that her account details had been changed, and when they finally realised, it was too late.
She said: "He changed them on Monday and it took until Friday and me calling multiple times a day for someone to notice.
"I was phoning and panicking all day and it was there in front of their faces.
"The lady on the phone even told me if it had been spotted at nine o'clock in the morning, then it could've been stopped.
"How has this massive, worldwide company not spotted this?"
After posting her story on social media, Sammy says local people have rallied around her in support.
In a remarkable gesture, one man from local food delivery service Wrexham Eats gave Sammy £300 to help her pay her staff.
She said: "One of the first things I thought about when I found out the money was gone was 'How am I going to pay my staff?'
"My staff have got their own bills to pay and families to support and they can't afford not to get their money.
"After I put a post up on Facebook, I got a message from someone from Wrexham Eats saying he'd sent me £300 to pay my staff and I honestly couldn't believe it."
The business owner claims she hasn't received any contact from Just Eat since she was told she had been a victim of fraud.
"When I spoke to them on Friday, they said someone would call me back, but I haven't heard anything.
"It feels like we've just been left to crumble, if I'm honest."
A Just Eat spokesperson told the Daily Post: "We take the safeguarding of restaurant accounts on the Just Eat platform extremely seriously and we are currently investigating what happened in this restaurant's case.
"We continually review our security measures and always advise restaurant partners to be vigilant about their online security and recommend that they use unique passwords for different online platforms."
