This is how she describes the incident: For the first time on Monday evening, the 73-year-old woman received a WhatsApp from a number she did not know. The sender pretended to be a daughter by writing the woman “Mama”. The fraudster also led the couple to believe that the daughter’s mobile phone was not working due to water damage and that therefore they could not make calls. In further messages, the false daughter asked for a four-digit amount of money to be transferred to a bank account that was sent, as she could not access her online banking because of the broken mobile phone. Believing they were writing with their real daughter, the couple went to the bank the next day and transferred the money to the scammers’ account.
It was only afterwards that the seniors contacted their real daughter and the scam came to light. In this context, the police warns and draws attention to the recent scam in which fake WhatsApp messages are sent, which has been increasing in recent times: The alleged victim receives a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. The person who wrote the message pretended to be the victim’s son or daughter and pretended that the phone was lost or broken. However, since important transfers have to be made and this is not possible with the new mobile phone, the victim is asked to make the transfer. The money then ends up in the hands of fraudsters due to incorrect account data. The police urgently advises not to react to such messages and to contact your son or daughter directly via the known number. If they cannot be reached immediately, you should not let yourself be put under pressure and, if necessary, seek advice from friends or the police BEFORE making transfers.
Regardless of whether the caller pretends to be “grandson”, “fake police officer”, “Microsoft employee” or in a WhatsApp with a foreign number as “son” or “daughter” and asks for a transfer, according to the police there is behind every call or message the attempt by criminal gangs to obtain their victims’ money in an unfair manner. As part of the police’s preventive work, information on protection against various fraud schemes is provided by the federal and state police crime prevention agencies on the Internet and can be accessed there under the link www.polizei-beratung.de.
–
