A widow knowingly gave more than £25,000 to a conman as he was the only person she regularly spoke to, according to a report.
The pensioner, from Bristol, told a charity she willingly gave the swindler her money because the daily telephone conversations were the only times she could talk to anyone.
Sylvia's heartbreaking tale is one of many heard by bosses at the Senior Citizen Liaison Team (SCLT), which teaches older people about financial scams.
SCLT says it has been inundated was requests to set up 'happy to chat' benches across the UK, providing spots for the elderly to meet other people.
Detective Sergeant Ashley Jones, who founded SCLT, told The Times that Sylvia's case was a 'tragic indictment' of our society.
He added: "She said, ‘I know I am giving this money away as part of a scam but I have got the money and this is the only person that I get to speak to on any sort of regular basis’."
The charity's first 'happy to chat' bench was first set up in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, in May.
The initiative was a roaring success and made national and international headlines.
A recent Cadbury Dairy Milk and Age UK study found that thousands of over 65s often go a week without speaking to anyone,
In a typical week, 22 per cent of over 65s - almost 2.6 million - will only have a conversation with a maximum of three people they know.
And 225,000 can see a whole week go by without talking to anyone face-to-face.
