When Falmouth University international student Viktoria Gromova, 21, fell victim to a banking scam that took all of her funds she thought her university journey would be over.

Thanks to the generosity of family, friends and strangers donations she was able to carry on studying but now she is out to warn others about potential fraudsters.

Originally from Bulgaria studying animation, Viktoria took out a student loan and was getting support from her parents to pay for her rent, bills, food and transport.

Following a call from someone pretending to be from her bank the person explained that her account had been breached - this was in fact a scam.

Viktoria told Nub News:

"During my second year at university, I opened a savings account because I have been trying to learn to budget and be mindful of my finances.

"I started putting money into my savings account and by the beginning of my third year (September) I had about £1,000."

On the 29th August Viktoria got a call from a private number, the person on the other end of the phone knew her by name, the person claimed to be from her bank and was enquiring about a scheduled payment made from Aberdeen.

"They wanted to call to make sure it was me doing that and that I authorised it, they told me my account had been breached," she said.

"He sounded really professional and kept me on hold for a while like banks do so it was convincing."

Viktoria was asked to transfer the money into an account to keep it safe, "that was the moment when I felt there was something fishy going on here," she said describing the moment she saw her account go to 0.

After becoming suspicious about what had happened Viktoria asked them to prove who they were.

She continued:

"I asked them how do I know they are from the bank? And the guy kept absolutely cool and information was read out details from my bank and my card.

"Right after that, I contacted my bank because my parents felt it was wrong and there were two cases created for them to search."

Viktoria is still waiting to hear anything substantial back after two months of waiting and numerous calls, she said:

"It is really frustrating for me to not know what is happening, I guess it is good that they haven't given up the case by now."

Viktoria thankfully got the funds together after creating a GoFundMe page raising about £900 in total (a third of what she lost.)

Advising others about what to do if they find themselves in this situation, Viktoria added:

"I would say a few things, firstly if someone wants to dig in your pockets just take the values out and move it to a different account.

"I got inspired to do the fundraiser because I know another friend of mine experienced this but with my background, this might be seen as begging in my country so I wouldn't naturally think of it but I was mindblown by the generosity of others, it is important not to shy away or keep it a secret."

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