Mum loses £170k in investment scam

A former firefighter mum says she lost her life savings after she fell for an investment scam.

Cath Mulalley, 55, a former London Fire Brigade member, emigrated to New Zealand with her husband in 2008 with the couple welcoming a baby four years later. In June, she received a call from a hoax advisor who convinced her to transfer $325,000 NZD (£170,000) into a new Citibank account.

While the Bank of New Zealand managed to recover $67,000 (£35,000), Cath tragically lost the rest of her money. The cash, which came from her pension, was intended to be invested for her daughter Eva, 10, the Mirror reports.

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After husband Carl fell ill and was left unable to work, the couple decided to apply for life insurance cover. It was this event that made her a target for the devastating scam.

Cath only realised something was wrong when the scammers called her bank to tell her the money hadn't arrived, despite the fact her Citibank account was completely empty. "I thought it was strange so I checked my account and there was nothing there, in any of my accounts," she said.

"I rang BNZ to ask them where the hell is the money if it’s not with Citibank and not in my accounts, and they kept putting me on hold and transferring me. I kept ringing back and demanding answers until one guy told me he would call me back.

"He called me back two days later and passed it to his manager because he thought something wasn’t right – a few days later they told me it was a scam. Apart from sheer panic, it’s quite hard to describe how I feel.

"I have panic attacks about what I’m going to do because I just don’t know.”

BNZ was able to