THEY RAN UP £17K OF DEBT IN MY NAME

NAIKA Butler lost £6,125 in savings after being targeted by fraudsters.

The crooks also ran up £1 ,000 of debt in her name. The 33-year-old mother of three received a telephone call in June from someone called ‘Jeremy’ who claimed to be from NatWest’s fraud team.

He offered to close her account and open a new one to protect her money following a suspicious transaction. He said he would send Miss Butler, pictured, a code via text message which she would need to read out to him over the phone.

After she did this the man told her not to log into her bank account for a while. A few days later she discovered that her account had been emptied. The fraudsters also increased her overdraft to £8,000 and took out a £9,000 loan.

The code sent to her phone allowed the fraudster to move her cash to another account. Eventually NatWest agreed to write off the loan and the overdraft. But it refused to refund the £6,125 Miss Butler had lost in savings because she had authorised the payment.

The childminder from West Wickham in south-east London said: ‘How was it possible for fraudsters to take out a £9,000 loan overnight and extend my overdraft without any confirmation by me? My wages wouldn’t even support such a large loan.’

A spokesman for NatWest said the bank was still reviewing the ‘distressing’ case.