A lonely Illawarra grandmother jailed over her unwitting role in a $100,000 phishing scam has won her freedom on appeal.

Georgina Masters believed she was in a committed relationship with an African man named Joseph Trimble when she agreed in February 2017 to let him use her bank account for a series of money transfers totalling $68,500 that defrauded a Wagga Wagga retiree of his life savings.

She told police the pair had connected on Facebook and spoke on the phone daily, but had never met in person. Still, she said Trimble had confessed his love and planned to move to Australia so they could marry.

So Masters said she didn’t hesitate when Trimble initially asked her to accept a stranger’s deposit of $15,000 into her account.

He then had her send him the cash via international…