BBC presenter’s mother lost £47k in ‘text mum’ scam

Phone scammers pretended to be Midlands Today's Michael Collie to scam his mum out of £47,000

A BBC presenter whose 83-year-old mum was scammed out of £47,000 while she was being treated for cancer said it was a "terrible, terrible" time.

Michael Collie said his mum Jo fell victim to a widespread phone scam just months before she died last year.

Mr Collie said he had "absolutely no idea" it was going on, despite seeing her through the period.

Mrs Collie was registered as vulnerable with her bank, but payments were still approved. They refunded all the money.

Age Concern say 41% of people aged over 50 have had some kind of scam happen to them within the last five years.

Mr Collie, a presenter for Midlands Today, told BBC Radio Gloucestershire that he and his wife were taking his mum, who lived in Prestbury, Cheltenham, out for the day when they discovered the fraud.

Mrs Collie on the day she did the longest zip-wire in the world just two months before she died

"She lived in a sheltered home near me and I was able to pop in quite a lot and I felt I knew what was going on," he said.

"We were driving along and mum said 'I hope you're feeling better' and I said 'I'm fine'.

"Then she said 'I'm glad I was able to help you. I'm glad I was able to give you some money to help out'."

"At that moment, I knew something was wrong," he said, "because I knew mum had not been lending, or giving me money."

'Hi mum...'

Mr Collie pulled into a Sainsbury's car park so they could talk, and his mum told him about a text message she received.

"It said 'hi mum, just to let you know, I've changed my phone number, you can delete the old number, use this one'."

It was as simple as that, he said.

"So she changed my number and she wrote, 'OK, that's fine, hope you're well'."

The BBC presenter said he was "horrified" when he learned what had happened

Over the next couple of days, messages were sent to Mrs Collie, as if from her son, to establish a relationship.

"Then came the message a couple of days later that said 'oh, can you help me out. I'm just changing my bank account at the moment and I've got a bill to pay.'"

It was for around £1,800 and she agreed to pay it.

Over the next couple of weeks, the scam rolled on.

'Registered as vulnerable'

Mr Collie said: "You might think, why did my mum not mention it to me? Why did she not phone up?

"And the reason she didn't phone me was obviously because [she thought] I was having difficulties and she didn't want to raise it with me.

"And she felt she was talking to me, because [to her knowledge] she was texting me on the phone."

He said his mum was registered as vulnerable with the bank, so she had a special number to call there.

She called this number numerous times asking them to pay 'her son' money, Mr Collie said, and although questioned, she was sure it was him, so the bank did not investigate further or flag the activity.

However, Mr Collie said as soon as he found out about the scam and called the bank, staff apologised for their "huge error" and assured him they would pay the money back, which they did.

Rev John Collie and Jo Collie were married at Lichfield Cathedral, 1959

Mr Collie said his dad was a vicar, so did not earn much and had saved "for years" to make sure his wife, who was around 13 years younger than him, had enough to "see her through".

And the scammers took it.

As a son, Mr Collie said he felt "absolute shock and horror" and felt he hadn't "protected" his mum.

He said the scammers were "100% to blame", but with less and less people living with, or close to, relatives, "we all have to take some responsibility" and look out for mums, dads, families and neighbours.

"Especially knowing things can go so horribly wrong," he added.