Amazon con cost this 80-year-old £3,000

VENETIA ROBERTSON received a call from bogus Amazon staff claiming she had accidentally signed up for its Prime service and was owed a £40 refund.

The caller asked the 80-yearold to complete a series of tasks, including searching for her computer’s IP address which shows the location of a device.

Not realising at the time, she believes this allowed the crooks to take control of her machine. Eventually they said she had been refunded £4,000 by mistake and that she needed to transfer the extra money back.

Venetia says the fraudsters were even able to make it look as though her online balance was £4,000 higher than it was.

A one-time password was then sent to her phone, which the crooks asked her to read out. This gave the go-ahead for a £3,000 payment to be sent to their account.

The pensioner did not even have to type in the name and number for the account as these automatically appeared on her screen.

She believes the fraudsters asked for £3,000 because a higher figure may have alerted the bank that the payment was suspicious.

Venetia (above) felt uneasy as soon as she put the phone down so called TSB. But she was in such a panic that she failed her security questions.

The following Monday she visited her local branch where she discovered her account had been drained, with just £504 remaining.

Venetia, who lives in Southsea, Hants, says: ‘I just feel so sick thinking about it and I keep asking myself how I could have been so stupid.’

TSB has confirmed it will refund the pensioner. Ashley Hart, at TSB, says: ‘TSB customers who are victims of fraud are always refunded in line with the terms of our Fraud Refund Guarantee.’