An elderly widow lost her entire life savings of £19.7k ($25k) to telephone scammers.

Susan Guthrie, 76, was conned out of her money by fraudsters who posed as Microsoft employees and talked her into depositing the money into their account.

They convinced her account had been hacked and unless she transferred the money, it was at risk of being stolen.

Susan, of Mesa, Arizona, USA, said: "I felt credible about the scammers and I felt assured that they would take care of the problem.

"Once I found out I was devastated. I felt really foolish."

According to Susan's daughter Sarah-Lynn Guthrie, the scammers gained access to her mum's computer on February 5 after she clicked on a pop-up.

The pop-up asked Susan to input her telephone number, allowing the scammers to call her.

Once on the phone, Susan was told to transfer her life savings to them for safekeeping until the hackers could be stopped.

She was asked to withdraw the money and deposit it using a Bitcoin ATM at a nearby shop.

Sarah-Lynn, a freelance videographer, said: "There's this little bodega in her neighborhood with a crypto ATM. I can't believe it's legal.

"She physically deposited $25K into the ATM. That 25k was all she had left to save her from small problems.

"My parents lost everything in the 2008 crash and now she's stuck in a tiny apartment which she can barely afford with her social security.

"What's really sick was that she was telling the scammers 'why would anyone steal from me, I'm just a little old lady all alone and poor' and they were empathizing with her."

The scammers made sure Susan wouldn't call a relative or a friend for advice by telling her that the hackers would access the phone of anyone she called.

Susan was only saved from their grip the following day after she told her physical therapist what had happened during an appointment.

Susan's physical therapist is also a family friend and immediately alerted her daughter Sarah-Lynn, who went to find Susan.

Horrifyingly, according to Sarah-Lynn, the scammers seemed to have "brainwashed" her mum.

A video shows the moment Sarah-Lynn confronted her mum and realised that she had lost her entire saving pot to scammers.

When Sarah-Lynn told her mum she was talking to criminals and not Microsoft, Susan almost refused to believe her.

She even ignored Sarah for a while and pushed her daughter away in favour of the phoney Microsoft employees.

Sarah said: "They [the scammers] are like hypnotists.

"It 100% felt like I was talking to someone in a cult.

"When I arrived she was on the phone with the scammers, still fully invested.

"I kept trying to mute the call and she kept pulling the phone away.

"She had already given them her life savings but in her head I just didn't understand."

Despite Susan's disbelief, she agreed to go to the bank with Sarah-Lynn and speak to the branch manager.