Between Friday, November 8th and Monday, November 11th, unknown people tried to use a pretext to persuade a 77-year-old Mönchengladbach resident to transfer money.
On Friday, the senior received a message on his cell phone via a messenger service. The sender pretended to be his daughter. The supposed daughter explained that her cell phone had been damaged and that was why she had a new number. During the conversation, the perpetrators asked the 77-year-old to transfer money to help out their daughter. Since the events seemed strange to the senior citizen, he called his daughter on the original phone number and the fraud was discovered. (JL)
The police warn:
“Hello mom, hello dad, this is my new cell phone number…” – Something like this is currently the most frequently used way to start a chat via SMS or messenger, where fraudsters only have one goal: to steal people’s money bring.
If you have received a message like this or something similar…
– Block the number,
– Report the incident to the police, and
– Then delete the chat/number of the scammers.
Always contact your family members/friends/acquaintances on a phone number you already know before saving a supposedly new number.
Check the contact: Ask the person you know at the old number whether the message really came from them. If you are asked for money transfers via WhatsApp or other messengers, always be suspicious.
Pay attention to the security settings of the messaging service you use and check the privacy settings regularly.
Further information and prevention tips can be found at the following link: https://www.polizei-beratung.de/themen-und-tipps/betrug/messenger/
If you have any questions from journalists, please send them to:
Mönchengladbach Police Press Office Telephone: 02161/29 10 222 Email: [email protected]
Original content from: Mönchengladbach Police, transmitted by news aktuell
