The daughter of an elderly couple who have lost more than £8,000 to a con artist pretending to be a TalkTalk employee says the company should have done more to protect its customers.

Sarah Manley, of Gravesend, said her parents Harold and Barbara Manley, who are both in their 80s, had been left with just £80 in their account after being duped.

They were called on Tuesday by someone saying there was a problem with their internet connection and they were due a £200 refund from TalkTalk.

When they checked their account it appeared they had been significantly overpaid, so they authorised a payment of £4,900 as instructed by the fake employee.

A further check revealed that amount had been taken along with another £3,800.

On Thursday, the telecoms company announced that personal details of up to four million of its customers could have been accessed by hackers.

“TalkTalk is very sorry but being sorry doesn’t pay the money back,” said Sarah.

“Mum and dad have very little money in their account now and are terribly worried about how they are going to manage.

“I think TalkTalk should stand up and say ‘We did not do enough to protect them’.”

Sarah said the company’s attempt at an apology had done nothing to make them feel better.

“They sent mum and dad a Freeview box as a sorry. It took them about three years to operate the one they had, so this is a bit of a kick in the teeth really.

“They are very proud people and they feel shamed and embarrassed about what has happened.”

A TalkTalk spokesman said they could not comment on individual cases but confirmed the company had been in touch with the Manleys and would be making further contact this week.

A statement released by TalkTalk yesterday said the amount of information taken by hackers had not been as much as at first feared and an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Cyber Crime Unit continued.

Anyone who believes they have been affected by the security breach is advised to change their passwords and report anything suspicious to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via www.actionfraud.police.uk