A WOMAN has urged others to be wary after she was scammed out of almost £16,000 in a WhatsApp con.
Paula Boughton was stung by fraudsters who tricked her into believing she was talking to her daughter, Sam.
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She says she received a message from who she presumed was her daughter explaining she had a new phone number.
The con artists then told her to delete Sam’s current contact details, before engaging in conversation with the unsuspecting mum.
Paula explained: “I received a text message from what I presumed was my daughter, asking me to delete the old phone number as she’d been given a new number.
“It went on after a couple of lines of text to ask me if I would make a transaction for her, which I agreed to, if she sent me the sort code, the payee’s details, and the account number.”
The mum obliged with the requests after being convinced she was talking to Sam, because the messages were “personal and genuine”.
She said the WhatsApp conversation correlated with what was going on in their lives, seeing Paula shrug off her worries.
But it turned out to be quite the expensive mistake – and she only realised when the scammer posing as Sam didn’t respond to her good night message.
Paula said: “I presumed it was my daughter, and I thought, well, because of the situation, I was able to do that, and I feel that I’ve been made a fool of.”
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Fortunately, her bank, Santander, were able to stop the last transaction and have refunded the mum the rest of the money.
Daughter Sam described how she “felt sick” when Paula informed her she had been swindled for almost £16,000.
She said: “Why on Earth, when I know she’s savvy with things and technology and you know, knowing there’s a lot of fraud out there and fake scams, why would she pay that much money?”
“I was furious, I was really angry, I had lots of mixed emotions.
“Then when I got here and I learned more about the situation, I realised how she had paid it and how she had got to that point.”
Paula’s case is now being assessed by the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
WHATSAPP WARNINGS
The mother and daughter have now shared their concerning story in a bid to warn other WhatsApp users from falling for the same trick.
The messaging app is regularly targeted by cunning cybercriminals.
A WhatsApp expert previously shared the three warning signs you should look for to avoid being scammed.
Brian Higgins, security specialist at Comparitech, told The Sun users should delete suspicious messages immediately.
Brits were also warned to keep their eye out for a new scam that allows hackers to take over your account with a single call.
They somehow circumvent the messaging app’s security features in order to gain access to a Whatsapp account without being detected by the user.
But there is hope – as one woman told how she got the ultimate revenge on scammers who targeted her via WhatsApp.
Amanda Seimetz told followers her “cautionary true story” and how cyber thieves almost convinced her she was talking to her bank.
