According to the police, the fraudster pretended to be the daughter of the person from Roth on Tuesday (June 8th, 21st) via WhatsApp message. To this end, he wrote “Hello Mama” very personally and explained why he was calling from a strange number: His cell phone had fallen into the toilet.
According to the police, the supposed daughter continued to write that the mother should save the new number under the contacts. Shortly thereafter, the next WhatsApp came that an open invoice of several thousand euros had to be paid, which was very uncomfortable for the sender. The fraudster asked if the mother could help out, the money would be paid back in a few days.
Even then, the 49-year-old injured party did not become suspicious, but transferred the amount to an account at an online bank. Only in contact with the right daughter did it become apparent that the WhatsApp messages did not come from this daughter and that the woman had been the victim of fraud.
Tips from the police in dealing with messenger messages
The police warn of this scam and advise
- ask personally if you are contacted by a previously unknown number via messenger services such as WhatsApp.
- The foreign number should not be used as a contact.
- As soon as money payments are requested via messenger services, the addressee should become suspicious.
- The security and data protection settings of the messenger services used should be checked.
- Unknown phone numbers could usually be blocked for direct contact, according to the police.
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