It was only later – at about 20:00 – that Samantha’s husband, who was working abroad at the time, contacted her by ringing one of their children’s phones.
“He goes ‘sweetheart, all the money has gone out of the accounts, every last penny we’ve got has gone, in fact, we’re even in the overdraft’,” she said.
“As soon as he said that the scammer [on speaker phone] hung up on me and the phone line went dead.
“And I was like ‘oh my god, this is just a nightmare. I can’t believe what I’ve done’.”
In Samantha’s case, she said she was fortunate to have a strong support system around her who could temporarily help with bills in the short-term but she still felt “absolutely mortified” at what had happened.
“I spoke to NatWest and luckily they reimbursed us after four days, but it was probably the worst four days of our lives,” she said.
“I couldn’t leave the house, I couldn’t go to work, I couldn’t do the school run, I couldn’t function as normal.”
She now hopes that by speaking out it will make more people aware of the signs of courier fraud, as well as encourage those affected to report it to the police.
“I want people to know that you’re not stupid. I thought I was doing a good thing,” she said.
“You think it happens to vulnerable people, to the elderly, but it’s not just them.”