Ceri and Jacob Armit’s mum was the ambitious type – always on her feet without a moment to spare.
As the finance director of a global company, it was hardly surprising. But she had a softer side, too.
‘She’s always wanted to help people who are in a less fortunate position than her,’ Ceri, 33, who does not wish to name her mum, says.
But for 18 months after being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, the 60-year-old thought she could get the money she needed to place her own mother – who had advanced dementia – in a care home by having a man invest her savings on her behalf.
The man fleeced her out of more than £2,100,000.
‘Hope you are excited about the step you are taking!’ he said during one of their earliest conversations, seen by Metro.
In June 2025, Ceri noticed a WhatsApp message from a contact saved on her mum’s phone as ‘Manager’ – despite having no manager at work.
‘I’m on call to HSBC. Nothing new yet. Is HSBC loan £20k?’ her mum messaged the man.
‘It’s £50k,’ the man replied.
Hundreds of texts, emails and bank statements revealed Ceri and Jacob’s mum was being scammed by at least two men.
‘They just showed it was even bigger than we thought it was,’ Ceri, a teacher living in Manchester, says.
‘We came across it too late.’
The family found transfers going to the same accounts, which a private investigator Ceri hired traced to Bulgaria and Singapore.
If it wasn’t by gouging her savings, the mum was taking out bank loans, sending the cash to the scammers through a transfer service.
The ‘manager’ gave her a script for what to tell the bank. ‘Just stick to the story,’ he told her. ‘You are simply moving money.’
In the four weeks before Ceri realised what was happening, her mum applied for 11 loans, five successful.
Jacob, a 29-year-old administrative worker, says one exchange always stood out to him.
‘My mum sent him photos of her dog, or told him about our grandmother,’ Jacob says. ‘He replied, “You need to send me £50k now”.’
He even made a website for his victim to track the ‘investments’; the ‘withdraw’ button did not work.
‘I spoke to him a few times,’ Ceri says. ‘We were hoping it wasn’t fake; he was saying she was in a brilliant position.
‘When we asked to take some [money] out to pay the loans, he turned nasty. “I know your address. Your mum owes £50,000. If she doesn’t pay, you have to”.
‘He’s taken every penny that my mum’s got – and he’s got away with it.’
Ceri believes her mum’s three-decade-old email may have wound up on the dark web, a secretive layer of the internet where personal information is sold to the highest bidder.
Alzheimer’s patients are ‘vulnerable to scams’
More than 3,900,000 people younger than 65 worldwide have early-onset Alzheimer’s, which causes foggy memory and language and visual problems.
The scammers knew this – emails shared with Metro show Ceri’s mum telling them she was going in for an MRI scan.
‘I feel like my life is gone,’ she told him. ‘I’m very sorry I couldn’t get more money to you.’
This is just what the scammers wanted to hear, says Jayne Sibley, the CEO of Sibstar, a debit card app for people with dementia.
She says they ‘groomed’ Ceri and Jacob’s mum.
How to stay safe from scams
Helen Quinn, senior knowledge officer at the charity Alzheimer’s Society, tells Metro:
- ‘Scammers often pretend to be trusted organisations, such as banks or utility providers, and may contact people by phone, email, text, letter or social media.’
- ‘Be cautious of any message that creates a sense of urgency, asks for personal or financial information, or requests money to be moved to another account. Stop and check that it is genuine before taking any action.’
- ‘A genuine bank or organisation will never contact someone unexpectedly to ask for their PIN, full password or to transfer money.’
- ‘If you’re unsure whether a call, email or visitor is genuine, contact the organisation directly using details from its official website or speak to someone you trust before responding.’
‘What makes this particularly difficult is that someone can still appear perfectly capable of managing their day-to-day life while becoming much more vulnerable to financial manipulation,’ Sibley says.
‘Too often, the signs are visible long before the harm lands.’
Banks must do more to protect vulnerable customers and their families, Sibley adds.
‘Every day of our lives, we were trying to do something’
Ceri and Jacob spent more than a year watching £2,500 in loan repayments come out of their mum’s account every month.
Ceri would go to HSBC branches three times a week after work hoping to resolve the issue.
She came to see any moment of free time as time she could spending helping her mum.
‘They once told me I need to have mum with me and I just started sobbing on the phone,’ Ceri recalls. ‘I can’t do this anymore, I have power of attorney, I don’t understand what I’m meant to do.’
Jacob adds: ‘Every day of our lives, we were just trying to do something, call the same people.
‘Mum understands that this man took money from her, but I don’t think she realises she sent it and the effect it might have had.’
HSBC cancelled four of the five loans after Ceri went to the Financial Ombudsman.
The bank told Metro it gave the family £455,000 as a gesture of goodwill.
‘We’re sorry to hear about any reports of scams or fraud and of the customer’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis following this scam,’ it added.
‘We’re pleased this case has since been resolved, following discussions with our customer and the Financial Ombudsman Service.’
Ceri’s mum now lives in a village in northwest England, supported by friends and neighbours.
But even if all their loans were wiped, Ceri knows this won’t stop others like her mum from being fleeced.
‘I just don’t really understand how this will be stopped,’ Ceri adds.
‘I would not be confident that it won’t happen again tomorrow to our mum.’
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