• The 22-year-old has written 'I'm not a bank' on her Twitter profile
  • She has been branded a 'dunce' and told to 'sort it out'
  • English and media teacher has received more than 200 tweets
  • Chaos at bank has now run into a sixth day, with calls for boss Stephen Hester to resign
  • A systems failure has left wages unpaid and customers unable to withdraw money, pay bills or use credit cards
  • Treasury is monitoring the situation
  • Ms Westerman says she will not be changing her username

By Emma Reynolds

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A young schoolteacher has received a barrage of abuse from angry banking customers because her internet profile is called ‘NatWest’.

Natalie Westerman, a 22-year-old from Newcastle upon Tyne, posts on social networking site Twitter under the name NatWest - because it is her nickname.

But since NatWest bank’s IT problems began causing chaos for its customers across the country, Ms Westerman has been receiving the brunt of people’s frustrations.

Spot the difference: Natalie Westerman, 22, has received a barrage of abuse over Twitter following the bank's IT problems - because her username is NatWest

Spot the difference: Natalie Westerman, 22, has received a barrage of abuse over Twitter following the bank's IT problems - because her username is NatWest

The English and Media teacher has received more than 200 tweets from irate NatWest customers.

She 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.

'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 have had a few abusive messages in the past but most of the time it’s just people asking me where their money is.'

Identity crisis: The English and media teacher says she finds the confusion funny - and won't be changing her name

Identity crisis: The English and media teacher says she finds the confusion funny - and won't be changing her name

Ms Westerman has set her profile description as ‘I’m a 22 year old woman and I’m not a bank’ - but still gets mistaken for the banking giant.

Bank boss Stephen Hester faced calls to resign today as the computer chaos at NatWest ran into a sixth day, prompting the Treasury to monitor the situation.

The bank was this morning still unable to confirm when customer accounts would be returned to normal - almost a week after a systems failure that has left wages unpaid and customers unable to withdraw money, pay bills or use credit cards.

Mr Hester, who is chief executive of the taxpayer-funded RBS Group, which owns NatWest, has promised that 'no one will be left permanently out of pocket' by the computer glitch.

A Twitter user called DAZER asked Ms Westerman: 'Oi @Natwest can I have my money please :('.

Hannah Gangoon told the young teacher, 'NATWEST NEED TO SORT IT OUT', while a user called ‘Mercedes’ branded her a ‘dunce’

Now that the true identity of ‘NatWest’ is becoming known, abusive Tweeters are backtracking and sending their apologies to Ms Westerman.

Twitter user Bethany Black said: 'Can I just apologise now for all the abuse you’ve had off me over the last year thinking you were the bank who f****d up my money.'

Ms Westerman has been replying to tweets and redirecting complaints to @natwest_help - the bank's actual account on the social networking site.

As the tweets continued to roll in, she wrote: 'Ive never felt so popular in my life. I am a person called nat west not a bank.'

She added: 'My friends find it hilarious when I tell them about all the messages I have received.

'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.

'It does not really bother me when people do mistake me for the bank and it's just humorous more than anything.'

Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have not been moderated.

Idiot twits.

Just goes to show the level of intelligence of Twits that they can't even be bothered to read someone's profile before abusing them.

If I had to sit next to her, I'd drop dead too.

To be fair she does not look 22. She looks old enough to be my mum and I am 26!

I hope the customers get a nice payout for every day that they cannot use the services. I would ask for same charges that Natwest uses when a customer goes over the overdraft or has a direct debit returned. By the way Natwest and RBS, you deserve everything you get, that's what happens when you fire 1,000s of IT staff in order to increase profits even further. Outsourcing and relying on IT consultants that don't know your systems very well does have its drawbacks doesn't it.

Div!!! Sort yourself out! Call yourself a teacher?

Poor lass! She should get a complementary payment from NatWest for taking some of their flak ... oh ... yes ... we're talking NatWest aren't we ...

...........and this is news because???...........

"English and Media teacher" - working the usual 80-hour week that teachers always claim they do yet has time to post rubbish on Twitter? And she is so media-aware that it never crossed her mind, or what passes for it, that her user-name was the same as that of one of the big banks? Really?

@ artful dodger Either a 3 year primary education degree (my friend just graduated and has a job in line and isn't 21 til august!) Or 3 year degree & 1 year TT

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