A YOUNG woman who has lived with MND for four years has told of how sick scammers targeted her with a ‘cure’ for the terminal illness.
Jo Knowlton, who lives in Dundee, was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease when she was just 29 years old.
MND affects the brain and nerves and causes a weakness which progressively gets worst over time.
Sadly there is no cure for the condition, which can affect up to 5,000 adults in the UK at any one time.
But Jo was scammed into buying one through a Facebook group that was set up to support people and their friends and family with their diagnosis and symptoms.
She told TV presenter Dr Xand on BBC show Con or Cure of her brush with the cruel con artists, warning others to stay vigilant when using social media for emotional support.
Jo said: “Unfortunately I was scammed.
“I joined a group on Facebook because I wanted to meet other people who had the same diagnosis as myself.
“I wanted to find out if there was anything they were trying that might help improve the symptoms or prolong a quality of life.
“I introduced myself to the group and I got a response from a woman who was talking about caring for her husband.
“He had had MND for four years – and he had gone from using a wheelchair to walking, fit and healthy after using this herbal concoction she was advertising.
“They offered to sell me some for £200.
“I just had to transfer the money via Western Union.”
Dr Xand asked: “Do you remember how you felt when they said they had this mixture that would help you?”
Jo continued: “It was a glimmer of hope, I felt there was absolutely nothing out there and somebody was now offering me a solution – something that was going to help me.
The presenter then asked: How did you know this was going to be a scam?
Jo added: “Once I had transferred the money, I had received confirmation that it would be delivered from South Africa within five working days.
“I thought it was a quite a short period of time to come from South Africa.
“When I went back to the Facebook group and found their profile, I looked at their profile picture and instead of it being the woman, it was actually a man holding a wad of cash.
“It was very obvious from that point that it was a scam.
“I was devastated – because I really thought I had found something that was going to help me.
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“And I was completely crushed that somebody would target a terminally ill person.”
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