A mother who wanted to earn extra money for Christmas fell victim to a home-working scam.

Grace Dale, of Stanway Close, Witney, answered an advert earlier this month offering readers as much as £3,000 per month for typing and mailing envelopes.

The 34-year-old part-time admin worker said: "I just wanted extra money for Christmas. I have a two-year-old daughter and it was just to buy extra bits and pieces for her."

Mrs Dale spotted the advert in the Oxford Mail and, as instructed, texted her name and address to a mobile number.

A letter was sent asking her to pay a registration fee of £15, which she sent by cheque - deciding that if it was a con, £15 wasn't too much to lose.

But she said after not hearing anything for a week, she phoned the company. She said: "The man said that quite a few people had had the cheque go missing so he asked me to pay by card."

But the day after the phone call she was contacted by her bank who asked her if she or her husband had withdrawn £1,200 from her account.

She said: "If Barclays hadn't phoned us we wouldn't have known."

The bank has now closed the account and have said the money will be repaid once it is sure the withdrawal was fraudulent. She said: "What if that had been some old pensioner who had lost all their pension and hadn't even noticed?"

Mrs Dale reported the fraud to the police and trading standards. She added: "I hope they get caught and they get some kind of sentence. I am obviously not the first and I am sure I won't be the last."

Oxfordshire county council's trading standards officers issued a warning after receiving a number of similar complaints.

Ray Jelf, cabinet member for community safety, said: "These scams usually aim to exploit those least able to afford to lose money."

There was no response on the phone line when the Oxford Mail called it.