WhatsApp scams can hit anyone. A victim responded correctly. How she noticed the fraud and what experts advise.
“The SMS came out of the blue for me,” says one of those affected. On an evening suddenly a message appeared on her cell phone: “Hello mom/dad, my cell phone is broken. This is my new cell phone number. You can save it! Send me a message via WhatsApp now.” But she was aware of the scam and reacted exactly right.
Shortly before that, she had overheard several women talking about con artists. All had experienced fraud attempts themselves. One of the women fell for it and transferred money after a shock phone call, says the person concerned. That showed her that something like this is widespread and can affect anyone. A short time later she was too victim of such a fraud attempt.
With this scam, the scammers try to lure potential victims with the first SMS and shift the conversation to WhatsApp. They then pretend that they are in financial distress and need the support of their parents. These should transfer large sums of money to partly foreign accounts.
“As soon as I spoke I knew something was wrong”
However, the woman noticed from the first words that something was wrong with the SMS. “I’m single, so there’s no way my kids would use ‘Hello Mom/Dad’ as a form of address,” she explains. She asked her daughters about this news on their shared WhatsApp group. She quickly confirm that it is a fraudulent SMS.
“I just ignored the message,” says the woman. The police If she didn’t report it, after all no damage was caused. She has no further news receive. The victim was lucky because she knew this scam well. But she thinks if the salutation in the SMS is more credible had been, she might have been different reacted. Still, she’s sure her first instinct would always be to put herself first under the supposed to report the old number to their children. Basically she can but understand if someone falls for such scammers. After all, the perpetrators would usually put their victims under a lot of pressure.
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That’s what consumer protection and the police say about the scam
In her case, according to lawyer Simone Bueb from the Bavarian consumer center, the woman behaved correctly. She advises deleting the message and blocking the sender of such fraudulent SMS in order to break off contact with the scammers. In addition, one should not save any unknown numbers on the cell phone, emphasizes the expert. If you want to be sure that everything is really okay with your own children, you can reach them via their previously known mobile phone number or via the landline, says Bueb.
If an affected person has transferred money, the police advise contacting their own bank immediately so that they can possibly stop the money transfer. In addition, you have to save the chat history in WhatsApp as a screenshot or photo if there is fraud in the room and you want to display it. In principle, the police recommend that you always remain suspicious of money demands, even if they come from supposed family members.
Anyone can become a victim of attempted fraud – even those who use their data sparingly
After this incident, the woman concerned wonders how the perpetrators got her number. She always uses her personal information sparingly on the Internet and she is not registered on any website with her cell phone number or other information. This is also recommended by the consumer advice center: Dealing sparingly with data such as telephone number or e-mail address reduces the risk of becoming the target of such a scam. But you can never be absolutely sure, as the perpetrators often test numbers or email addresses on the off chance.