Widow, 84, loses life savings after being targeted by overseas junk mail conmen

Rita Hopkins was bombarded with up to 500 letters a week from bogus firms and received hard-sell calls telling her to hand over money.

At one stage the grandmother of four, who was in the early stages of dementia, was going through whole cheque books in a single day.

Her family found out about the extent of the con only after Mrs Hopkins spent 48 hours without light, heating or hot food - because she believed she might burn down her house.

She had been unable to afford a good luck charm a 'clairvoyant' insisted was needed to protect her home from fire.

Over a two-year period, Mrs Hopkins lost £35,000 - leaving her with credit card debts of £7,000 and her bank accounts empty.

Her daughter, Julie Kingston, said: "My poor mum has been through hell.

"Once these people have got their claws into you, then they will bleed you dry if they can. They are vultures who will not let up.

"My father had been a soldier and was often away, so my mother was

quite independent and learned to manage her own money.

"That is why it is so shocking she got taken in.

"Anyone with elderly relatives will probably find they have been getting this stuff if they check."

Mrs Hopkins was living in Bowthorpe, Norwich, when she responded to a junk mail letter.

Soon, she was receiving large amounts of mail, telling her she needed lucky charms to avoid dire consequences or had won a cash prize, but had to buy an item from a mail order catalogue before collecting it.

Other scams included sending unsolicited goods, followed by demands for payment.

Her family later took away three bin bags of items including health products and plastic jewellery.

Mrs Hopkins was also encouraged to include bank account and credit card details when she replied to some of the letters, meaning the con men were able to make purchases on the cards and take money from her account.

Her family were unable to keep a close eye on her because they lived in other parts of the country.

Mrs Kingston, a 51-year-old complementary therapist from Surrey, said: "All these letters were coming from places like France, Belgium, Switzerland or Australia and operated through PO boxes.

"You can't get through to these companies by phone and you can't find anything out about them. Even if I wrote back and said my mother was dead, the letters still came."

The cycle was broken only when Mrs Hopkins, whose husband James died in 1993 aged 75, had her post redirected and her phone number changed.

She was also given new bank account details.

She is now in a retirement home and Mrs Kingston has been granted power of attorney over her finances.

Around 3.2million people in the UK fall victim to junk mail scams each year, costing an estimated £3.5billion.

The Office of Fair Trading warns that responding to just one letter can lead to individuals being put on a "suckers list", which other criminals can access at a cost.

Victims can then find themselves inundated by hundreds of requests by opportunistic scammers.

The elderly and vulnerable often fail to see through the ruse and reply.

A spokesman for the OFT said it is difficult to take action on scammers because many are based abroad or outside the European Union.