Carlisle grandmother Sylvia Singleton has been conned out of more than £6,000 by a phone scam, just before Christmas.

The 74-year-old who suffers from osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia and asthma, finds it difficult leaving the house and depends on her phone line.

In the run up to Christmas, Sylvia had be receiving calls daily, saying they were from BT and she had a problem with her computer, she continued to reject these calls as BT were not her service provider. Sylvia said: “I’m not stupid, but he was so convincing and made me feel I was going to lose my phone and computer. I was so frightened.”

After she finally accepting the call from “manager, Alex Hales” he directed her through a process, that unbeknown to her, would give him remote access to her computer and everything on it.

Fearing she would lose all access to family and friends over Christmas, Sylvia downloaded the TeamViewer 14 app, which is computer software for remote control, desktop sharing, online meetings this gave him the access after Sylvia unknowingly gave him codes.

While on the call the worried grandmother phoned her daughter, Natalie Dwyer, on her mobile. Mrs Dwyer, 46, of Carlisle, said: “I screamed down the phone to hang up. I knew right away it was a scam.”

She added: “It was so hard for me because I was picking my son up and knew I needed to get back and stop this happening. My mam just didn’t realise what was going on. With her illness it can cause her reactions to slow down so it can take a little while for her to understand.”

Telephone scams have been around for a long time and prey on the elderly and vulnerable. Reports from Citizens Advice say: “Almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of people have been targeted by scammers in the past two years, either by mail, phone calls, text messages, emails, online.”

Every year more than £10bn is lost to scams and fraud with 75 being the average age of scam victims.

Sylvia said: “What type of person could do this to someone, I’m a grandmother and a great grandmother I only have my daughter left after the death of my son I just don’t understand.”

Computer scams are happening every day where people are cold called and told they have a problem with their computer and, just like in Sylvia’s case, pressure the victim into following their advice.

After her daughter reported the crime to the police Mrs Singleton still couldn’t believe it had happened she said: “It wasn’t till we got to the bank and I seen my balance that I realised I had been robbed. I feel violated, like someone walked through my front door and went through my things.”

David, Sylvia’s husband who is also 74, said: “It has ruined Christmas. We’re now worried if we can even pay our direct debits.”