Status: 08/02/2022 8:30 p.m
Fraudsters try to swindle money with a grandchild trick variant. According to the State Criminal Police Office, they pretend to be relatives who urgently need money via the WhatsApp messenger service.
Messages reach us on our smartphones every day. Many of them via the messenger service WhatsApp. This is exactly what scammers take advantage of. Using a variant of the grandchild trick, they try to get their potential victims to transfer money to an account. “They send those affected a WhatsApp message that says, for example: ‘Hello mom!’ or ‘Hello Dad! I lost my old mobile phone, so I now have a new number'”, explains Carola Jeschke, spokeswoman for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA). Then the scammers explain to their victims that online banking is not yet working and that an invoice urgently needs to be transferred. With this scam they try to get their victims’ money.
AUDIO: Police in Schleswig-Holstein warn of WhatsApp fraud (1 min)
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Already stolen 500,000 euros in 2022
Such cases are currently reported to the police in Schleswig-Holstein almost every day – most of the time those affected do not fall for the swindle, according to the LKA. According to the LKA, the fraud has worked in around 200 cases in the past four months. Half a million euros have already been stolen this year through the WhatsApp scam in Schleswig-Holstein alone.
LKA: Check the identity of the sender before making a transfer
As a rule, the messages ask you to transfer amounts between 1,000 and 3,000 euros. Carola Jeschke from the LKA says: “You can protect yourself from this by contacting the person who allegedly wrote it directly. A quick call is the fastest way to check the real identity.”
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