A debt-ridden single mother has come forward to express her disgust after scammers posing as lottery winners attempted to con her out of her money online.
Dympna McKenna, 47, from Birmingham had been contacted on social media by an account pretending to be the lucky lottery-winning couple Richard and Debbie Nuttall.
The account had tricked McKenna into giving up personal information - including details of her finances, desperation and personal struggles.
The 47-year-old revealed to the scammer that she needed help for both herself and her 10-year-old daughter Dakota, who suffers from autism.
47-year-old Dympna McKenna thought she was talking to the EuroMillions winners online
Facebook/PA
When the Facebook scammers offered her money to help with her £7,000 debt, McKenna cried - but the 47-year-old later cottoned on to the con, playing along with the fraudsters to lead them down a dead end.
She said: "I bared my soul and that's why I'm mad. They are sat behind a computer. How can a person go from being an innocent baby to a monster? It's disgusting."
McKenna lamented the struggles of raising her daughter, saying: "She has sleepless nights with anxiety. I'm always on her bed holding her hand. I can't work."
The single mum had been attempting to clear her debt for a few years and was elated when a friend of a friend told her they had been talking to the 'Nuttalls' - and the couple might be able to help her.
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McKenna wondered why any lottery winner would spend time talking to her rather than spending their winnings
PA/Facebook
She then decided to contact who she thought was Richard Nuttall on social media - and, after explaining her troubles, the account posing as the £61million EuroMillions jackpot winner offered her money.
But when 'Richard Nuttall' began to pester McKenna for personal information, she realised something was amiss, wondering why any lottery winner would spend time talking to her rather than spending their winnings.
McKenna has warned other would-be victims about falling for similar scams, saying she felt angry that scammers were targeting vulnerable people who could lose out on thousands of pounds - for whom she said she felt "sick".
A National Lottery spokesperson said the firm had successfully worked with Facebook's parent company Meta to rid the site of the specific scam account.
But another spokesperson warned: "We are aware that there are individuals and organisations that attempt to obtain payment or personal details from people under a variety of pretexts.
"The National Lottery, winners of The National Lottery and other lotteries are sometimes falsely used as part of these scams."
This specific scam was using the alias of the Nuttalls, who had first believed that they'd only won £2.60 in a EuroMillions draw - but actually ended up scooping a huge £61m jackpot.
The pair, who had been playing EuroMillions for eight years, took the 29th spot on The National Lottery Rich List with the extraordinary win.
