Doncaster man, 87, swindled out of £5,000 by computer scammers

The 87-year-old, who is a full time carer for his wife, who has advanced dementia, told his story on BBC’s Dirty Rotten Scammers.

The man, named only as Jim, is himself in recovery from prostate cancer and was conned out of the cash after thieves gained access to his computer.

The devoted husband does all the chores around the house and is also happy to lend a listening ear when he gets a phone call.

Unfortunately, heartless fraudsters have many times taken advantage of his good-hearted nature to con him out of thousands of pounds.

The pensioner came across an advert for a Bitcoin investment scheme and decided to invest £500.

Once he had signed up, he had a call from a salesman, asking for access to his computer to set up the investment.

Jim said: “They got me to open my laptop, get it on twin screen, he said I’ll do everything for you.

“He said at any stage, if you want to, you can withdraw your money, whenever you like.”

After Jim had finished speaking to them and they had processed the payment, he found out that they had in fact taken £5,000.

Jim contacted his bank, but it was too late to recover the funds.

He said: “I worry about the thousands of old people like myself that don’t know anything about scams.

“These things play on your mind, they make you worry, what’s next.

“Are they going to get any more money out of the account?”