A DISABLED man scammed out of £10,000 by sophisticated fraudsters who hijacked his computer over the phone has warned others not to fall prey to the same sting.

Glen Brandon, who had been saving up for ten years to buy a new wheelchair and go on holiday, reported the scam to police and his bank but neither have been able to help.

Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, indicated that it thought the attack had come from overseas and it said it could not carry on investigating because of lack of evidence in the UK.

Mr Bradon's mum, Lorraine Brandon, has now set up a fundraising page to replace £2,000 of his savings and ‘show Glen that good people still exist’.

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The 31-year-old, who lives in Headington with his mum, dad and brother, said: "I’d say keep your money under your bed. Honestly, I wouldn’t know what to say to anybody else.

"We all pay into these banks with extra fraud protection, they put it in the adverts, but when it comes down to it they can’t help me, and regardless fraud is fraud."

The con happened in June this year after Mr Brandon had called Virgin Media, his internet provider, and was waiting for a call back.

He then received a call from someone claiming to be from Virgin, but who was actually a fraudster.

The imposter chatted for hours to gain his confidence, then talked Mr Brandon into giving remote access to his computer 'in order to check his internet speed'.

Once Mr Brandon had given remote access, and while they were still talking on the phone, the fraudster got into his ISA savings account without him knowing and transferred £14,000 into his Nationwide current account.

The fraudster then told Mr Brandon that he was actually due a refund from Virgin, and that that they had already transferred a large amount into his account, but accidentally overpaid him.

They asked Mr Brandon to 'pay Virgin back' the money, but gave him the details of their own bank account, and he transferred a total of £10,000 – not realising it was his own life savings.

By the time Nationwide called him four hours later to tell him there had been 'unusual activity' on his account, he had lost his savings which had been stashed away from birthdays, Christmas and left-over money from his disability benefits.

Mr Brandon reported the theft to police who passed the case onto Action Fraud.

The crime was then assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau which found that there were 'insufficient lines of enquiry for an investigation based in the UK'.

A spokesperson for Action Fraud said: “The international nature of fraud poses difficulties in tracing payments and suspects.

“With 250,000 crimes reported to Action Fraud as year not all cases can be passed for further investigation and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau do prioritise those cases with viable lines of enquiry.”

Mr Brandon was born prematurely at 28 weeks and suffered a brain haemorrhage at birth.

He has cerebral palsy and his vision is affected from side-effects of hydrocephalus – a build-up of fluid around the brain.

Because of his disability, he is unable to walk or stand, so uses a wheelchair to get around.

The 31-year-old, who lives in a flat built on the side of his parents’ home, said Nationwide told him it would not be giving him a refund for the damage.

He went on: "They have this slogan, 'Nationwide on your side', but they’re not on my side for this one.

“They did phone me, maybe three or four hours later, and said that there had been some unusual activity.

“When I use my credit card, they always stop the transaction and I’m always a bit shocked, but this time – I feel like they’re not interested in this one."

He added: "Hopefully it just won’t happen to anybody else."

Nationwide said that it had acted as soon as it became aware of suspicious activity on Mr Brandon's account and prevented a further £10,000 being taken.

It also said it had contacted the bank that had received the funds, but by that time less than £15 was remaining in the account.

In a statement the building society said: "Nationwide sympathises with the situation Mr Brandon find himself in, but no error has been made by the society as he authorised the payments when he gave the unique codes generated by his card reader to the fraudster.

"By the time the society became aware of the situation £10,000 had been withdrawn and when we contacted the receiving bank, the money had been withdrawn. However, we were able to prevent a further £10,000 being transferred.

"Nationwide takes the protection of its members money seriously and is always seeking to educate them on fraud and scams."

Mr Brandon's family have now set up a fundraising page in a bid to raise £2,000 and to ‘bring hope to Glen’ who they said was left ‘devastated and feels vulnerable and foolish’ after the crime which happened a week before his birthday.

Mrs Brandon said because her son is unable to work, he worries about his finances and the future and stashes money away in case he needs to buy a new wheelchair.

She added: “He’s an amazing guy, such a lovely lovely person.

“I set up the page for him, thinking when you see someone so low, and see somebody become so depressed – maybe this will give him hope.”

Fraud now makes up around 65 per cent of reported crime and the number of people in Oxfordshire contacting Citizens Advice Oxford about scams shot up by a third in the last year.

Detective Inspector Duncan Wynn, the head of the Thames Valley Police economic crime unit, told the Oxford Mail last month: “In the past, fraud has often been looked at as a victimless crime. But fraud that preys on the vulnerable can be unpleasant and financially catastrophic for victims.”

The fundraising page can be found online at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lorraine-brandon-3