A Newcastle schoolteacher known on Twitter as @natwest has deleted her online account after she received a barrage of abuse from angry banking customers.
Natalie Westerman, 22, told Sky Tyne and Wear how she received countless irate messages from Natwest customers following the bank’s IT problems, which caused chaos nationwide.
But since her story became national news she’s received even more messages, and has been bombarded by interview requests.
As a result, the 22-year-old deleted her account on Tuesday evening.
She said: "I just had enough. It wasn’t worth the hassle so decided to delete it."
Following our interview, a Twitter user tweeted her saying: "Natalie Westman probably thought she was being clever when she picked the name @natwest."
Another user said: "Hilarious. Guess @natwest is fed-up with all the abuse she’s been getting."
The English and Media teacher said: "I joined Twitter about five years ago, when it wasn't such a huge thing and was only really big in America at the time.
"I chose the username NatWest because that has been my nickname since school.
"It wasn't until about six months later that I started to get a few comments from people mistaking me for the bank.
"I would just re-direct them and tell them they had made a mistake.
"You have to remember that at this time companies such as NatWest had not actually started using Twitter yet.
"It is only in the last few years that the mistakes have become more frequent. I find it quite amusing to be honest.
"I am a teacher and when I recently told the children about what had happened they found it very funny.
"I don't think that I am going to change my username because I have got friends on Twitter from New Zealand and I don't want to lose them."
A Twitter user called 'DAZER' asked her: "Oi @Natwest can I have my money please :("
And Hannah Gangoon told the young teacher: "NATWEST NEED TO SORT IT OUT" - while a user called 'Mercedes' branded her a 'dunce'
NatWest has been forced to further extend its opening hours as it battles the backlog of transactions.
1,200 main NatWest and RBS branches will be open from 8am to 6pm for the rest of the week after opening on a Sunday for the first time on June 24.
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