A retired widow, identified by the pseudonym Elkie to protect her identity, has described losing nearly £690,000 across two successive fraud schemes spanning several years, in a case that illustrates the mechanics of what law enforcement calls the “recovery room” scam model.

The losses broke down as follows: £80,000 invested in Bitcoin through a now-defunct firm called Bright Finance in 2020; £320,000 paid in escalating fees to fraudsters posing as police and legal recovery agents; and a further £370,000 transferred to a fictitious AI-powered trading scheme operated under the name Webtrader Pro. A close friend of Elkie’s, referred to as Graham, also invested £80,000 in the same scheme after independently assessing it as…