SCAMMED OUT OF THOUSANDS

When Susan realised her mum had fallen prey to cold-call fraudsters, she was too late to stop it

- ELAINE HAYWARD

Making my mum a cup of tea, I sat next to her on the sofa. There was something important we needed to discuss – and it wasn’t going to be easy. My mum Rosemary, then 91, lived alone in a remote part of Wales and had a carer visit her daily. I lived in London, working as a semi-retired journalist. My sister Julia and our brother John lived in London too, and we’d take turns visiting Mum as often as we could. Despite her age, Mum remained fiercely independent and self-reliant – she hated a fuss, and liked to do everything herself.

And that was why we were worried about her. For the past several months, she’d been falling prey to cold-call scammers. Only, as I now tried defrauded, she stubbornly shook her head. ‘It’s the bank making mistakes,’ she insisted. Mum refused to believe she was being scammed, but the truth was it had been going on for months…

MISSING THOUSANDS

It was one of Mum’s carers who first noticed she was receiving a lot of calls, and making payments over the phone, in early 2021. The carer warned Julia – who had power of attorney – and once Julia was granted online access to Mum’s bank account, she discovered Mum had been continually scammed for the best part of a year.