I hope this is the right place to post, I could really do with some advice.
My elderly mother has been tricked into withdrawing £9000 from her bank account and sending it to different addresses given to her by fraudsters.
She's 79, widowed and lives alone. As far as I can gather, she's been victim to an O2 scam which started a few weeks ago when a caller told her she needed a new SIM card. She gave them her bank details and her address so they could take payment for the SIM and send it to her. She realised that this didn't seem right and contacted O2 who told her that it was a scam and to contact her bank which she did. At this point, her debit cards were replaced and she thought that was the end of it. There was, as far as I know, nothing going on with her bank account at this point.
Fast forward to this week and she recieved a text, again purporting to be form O2, saying that they were going to be taking a payment of £40 odd to cover the cost of a watch or some such (this is all very unclear). My mum had then called the numbe ron the text (I think) and as far as she was aware, she was speaking to O2. They then told her that this was a scam and put her through to their fraud department. They then transferred her to the fraud department at her bank. None of this was real and was all part of the scam.
Next thing she received a call (allegedly from her bank's fraud department) saying that they needed her to help catch the scammers and this is where she's fallen for their abhorrent scam. I feel sick thinking about it.
They told her (on three separate occasions over a five day period) that they would secretly deposit £3000 into her account which she should then withdraw in cash and post to an address that they gave her. She was told not to tell anyone and then once the scammers were caught, the bank's fraud department would contact a family member to explain. My mum believed all of this and has gone along with it each time. She's withdrawn three lots of £3000 in cash, packaged it up according to the scammers' instructions, taken taxis to and from three different post offices, spent £15 each time on special delivery and sent this cash on its way. All along she's thinking that it's not her money as the 'bank' have deposited the sums into her acocunts for her to then withdraw. It's absolutely flabbergasting and I can't believe she fell for it but she did. All of this was done in secret and she believed that she was helping to catch fraudsters.
She came to her senses this evening and realsied that something wasn't right, called her bank and was told that it was a scam, and she's convinced that she's not out of pocket. She hasn't been able to check her bank account as she's changed her log ins and now can't get in online. The bank have blocked her accounts so we have to go into a branch after the weekend and try and sort it out. It's such a mess.
I don't think she fully grasps what's happened and seems to be focusing on irrelevant aspects of it. She also seems unclear about how much money she had to begin with which is worrying.
The bank have told us to report it to report fraud uk which I'm in the process of doing on her behalf but I'm wondering if there's anything else we can do to manage this? Apparently the scammers have said they'll call her again after the weekend (it seems that they call, tell her to withdraw the cash and where to send it each time). I've told her not to answer any calls whatsoever but I'm worried that she will.
Not sure what advice I'm looking for really, it's all just so upsetting and distressing.