An elderly woman suffering from skin cancer was scammed out of £300,000 after being told she had won the Australian lottery, her heartbroken son has revealed.
Barbara, who was born in England but moved to Scotland, was told to hand over four £25,000 cash tickets to two men in order to ‘release’ her lottery prize money.
Her son Steve, a former yacht builder, says his 74-year-old mother, who died just two months ago, never got her money back and was forced to sell her bungalow to pay back a £100,000 loan from the bank.
He said, “For the last 10 years of her life, she was just devastated and constantly stressed as she battled cancer.
“That money would have really made a difference in her life and our lives.”
Steve says the scam his mum fell for was similar to the one where a Nigerian con man – nicknamed ‘Fizzy’ for his love of vintage champagne – cheated vulnerable pensioners out of £5m in savings.
Barbara died aged 74 two months ago after being conned of nearly £300,000 when she was told she had won the Australian lottery
As Barbara Battled Cancer, Her Son Said, ‘All This Stress Was Just Terrible For Her’
Asked how she was cheated on, Steve said, “It was around 2009 or 2010, right after our father died, and I was working in the Netherlands, but me and my brother kept an eye on her as best we could. I called her every day.
“When I called, she said, don’t worry guys, you’re fine. Things are going to change. I would say what the hell are you talking about?
“A few months went by and I called her and she said the police were listening in on our calls, so I had to be careful. Then I realized something was wrong, so I flew back from the Netherlands and she said I had been scammed out of a lot of money.’
Steve wondered why a bank manager would “give an old woman £100,000 in cash” without question.
He added: ‘My father and mother worked very hard all their lives and everything was bought, including the house, after they had built up a good pension.
“But after getting the loan from the bank to pay the hundred grand, she had to sell the house when the market was at an all-time low. On top of the £100,000 she lost, she lost another £200,000 selling the house when she did, because today it would have been worth at least £350,000.’
Steve said the two men who collected the money were arrested after the last pickup when Barbara called the police.
He also said that throughout this process, she kept everything a secret and “close to her chest,” which meant that he and his brother couldn’t find out any information.
Steve also said his mother’s ear was removed by doctors to remove the cancer
When asked about the impact on his late mother, he said, “After the scam, she had cancer about six times and they kept cutting it out of her. She had it on the side of her head, they had to cut off her ears and peel her skin off and sew it all back on.
“All this stress was just terrible for her. A few months ago she had a tumor on her lung and the hospital took a sample of it and her lung collapsed. Three weeks later she was dead.’
Steve, who suffers from chronic Lyme disease and COPD, shared how his brother suffered two heart attacks and how the money his mother would have left had she not been conned “would have made a real difference in our lives.”
When asked what he would say to the people who scammed his mother, he replied, “I just hope someone doesn’t do it to their family. It is ruining people’s lives and has torn our family apart.
“Seeing this Fizzy champagne scammer with all his watches and cars makes me feel sick.”
He added, “Mom was a very loving woman and throughout her life she opened her heart and home to emergency shelter for children from drug and alcohol abuse families.
She absolutely loved doing it and took in a baby one time until she could be put into foster care because her mother was addicted to heroin.
“She was also a very strong woman who didn’t take cr*p, so it’s so wrong that this is happening to her.”