Fraudsters who promised a man the latest iPhone took more than £4,600 from his bank account - and now he is struggling to pay rent.

Khosrow Kezri, of High Road Barnet, was contacted by a woman claiming she was from Telefonica, the company that owns O2, his network provider.

She said because he was an O2 customer he was eligible for the latest iPhone.

But after telling her his bank details, the 53-year-old never received the phone, but instead was horrified to find £4,656 had been removed from his bank account.

Mr Kezri said: "I have lived here for 23 years and this is the first time i have felt like an idiot.

"That is a lot of money for someone like me, when I found out I was shaking and screaming, I can't trust people any more.

"All the money I had has been stolen."

The scammers made the payments from his Barclays account look like debits to energy companies such as Eon, Npower, Southern Electric and Opus.

When Mr Kezri called his bank, they told him that there was nothing they could do.

Mr Kezri works in an ice cream shop in Whetstone and had been saving money to buy a car for his wife as a present.

He has not been able to recover his money and is now struggling to pay for electricity and rent.

Mr Kezri said: “So the lady could enter my O2 account, she asked the first and third part of my password. I gave her the code and I trusted her.

“She said she needed to do a credit check on me to see if I am qualified and asked for my card details so I gave her them.

“Nothing happened and I waited for the new mobile and contract. I had £4,600 in my account I had planned to use to buy a car for my wife.

“Suddenly on a few days later I received a text message from Barclay’s about activity on my account.

“I want people to know that there are people out there who will promise you things and claim to be from companies you trust, but you cant believe them, people don't understand just how dangerous it is."