Twist to bingo identify claim

On Thursday we reported the mysterious story of how Rita Tapping, a 63 year old widow from Whitley Wood Road, Reading was claiming that a person or persons unknown had hacked into 3 online bingo accounts and gambled away her money. The culprits were alleged to have lost £9000 and won £3000, leaving Mrs Tapping £6000 out of pocket.

The story was particularly strange as it was impossible for anyone to profit from this, as all winnings were paid back into the bank account associated with the bingo accounts, and no other bank accounts were added to the bingo accounts.

At the time our first story went to press it was reported that both the Financial Ombudsman and the Natwest bank had said there were no grounds for compensation, due to the lack of motive. She had also taken her complaint to the police and to the 3 different bingo sites to no avail. Two of the sites have yet to be named although the third is Dream Bingo. They apparently offered Mrs Tapping £3600 after she had approached them with her story. She went to the Natwest for advice who she said told her not to accept this, as then she would not be able to claim fraud. To rub salt in the wounds Natwest then decided it wasn’t fraud, but by then Dream Bingo had withdrawn their offer.

Mrs Tapping has now decided though not to drop the matter, and is now offering a cash reward for help in getting to the bottom of this strange affair and clearing her name. This case has attracted a lot of attention and Natwest have said that they will now re-investigate the claims. A spokeswoman at NatWest said: “We are keen to look into this matter for Rita Tapping, but have been unable to speak to her today. Once we have full details of the issue, which happened two years ago, we will be able to undertake a full investigation.”

Mrs Tapping herself has added to previous statements; “What can I say to all you judgmental folk out there? I have tried everything to clear my name going as far as obtaining the IP numbers from which these fraudulent transactions were made. I believe they played the slots on these sites. I have not an addict and have not touched a bingo site since this happened 2 years ago – I am an honest and trustworthy person who does not live off the state. I worked hard for that £6000. I asked for my details to be printed as I am offering a reward for the arrest of the person responsible. I need to know how it was done. As for your thinking why would anybody do this with no financial gain this was the first question I put to Phil Lake who works for the police force. His reply was “you won’t believe what sad, sick b*****ds are out there.” The police are treating it as fraud. I really hope something like this never happens to you. I have lost money, my good name
but most of all my beloved husband.”

This is one story that looks like running for a while longer yet, and we’ll certainly be keeping our eyes on it for you.

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5. Lottery winner nearly conned out of his winnings.