But now she is celebrating the return of her cash - and she's convinced it's thanks to The Star.
Theresa, of Birley Moor Close, Birley, Sheffield, tried to send the money to her son, Chris Kent, through transfer company West-ern Union - but it was picked up by a mystery person in another Nigerian city.
Calls to Western Union initially failed to find a solution - and Theresa planned to pursue the matter through the small claims court. But after further calls and the intervention of The Star, Western Union sent her a 'goodwill cheque' for £1,041.
Theresa said: "My son works as a geologist in Nigeria and in the area he is working in there are no cash machines. Because he couldn't access any cash he rang me and asked if I'd transfer some money over to him. I arranged for the £1000 to be picked up by him or his wife Amina in Port Harcourt.
"But when Amina went to collect it she was told someone had already picked it up - but from Ikejia in Lagos, hundreds of miles away.
"I rang Western Union lots and lots of times but they would not give me the name of the person who had collected the money. Somewhere down the line there are some big security issues. I had to give a 'secret' name - my maiden name - for security reasons, but there was obviously a breakdown.
"Chris was horrified. It was a huge amount of money - more than my monthly salary and who can afford to lose that amount of money?"
She added: "Whilst I am delighted that Western Union are at last doing the decent thing and returning the cash, I feel they have serious internal security issues that need to be addressed.
"It was the first time I had ever used their services, and not an experience I would like to repeat. Their dismissal of my repeated requests for information left me exhausted and enraged, and I sincerely believe without the intervention of The Star the only course of action open would be to pursue the matter through the small claims court."
A Western Union spokeswoman commented: "Western Union continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mrs Green's complaint and apologises for any delay in our response to her. We regret she experienced a problem when using our money transfer service.
"Western Union holds itself and its agents to an extremely high standard and dedicates significant resources to ensuring the security of our money transfer service against fraudulent activities.
"For privacy reasons, Western Union is prohibited from discussing the details of a consumer's transaction. However, our initial investigation has not provided any evidence to suggest that any fraudulent activity has occurred on this occasion.
"We would like to reassure all consumers that Western Union has standard procedures in place to ensure their transactions are conducted safely and securely."