“Hello mom/dad” are often the first words in the messages that herald a WhatsApp scam. The cell phone was broken or lost. Buying a new cell phone should therefore be based on the foreign phone number. We leave it open for now that it would also be possible to get a new SIM card with the old number.
The follow-up messages always say that an amount of money needs to be transferred urgently. The scammers give various excuses as to why they cannot do this themselves. And so parents or grandparents are asked to step in. Whatever they do for their supposed offspring.
Victims are often older people
If we look at police reports, we see that the victims are often older people - seniors. Those who may not be very knowledgeable about technology or may not be aware of various scams. But even if: As soon as your daughter, son or even grandchild is in trouble, you want - no, MUST - help, without asking too much.
Even if the news may seem strange to you, you probably don't think about it at the moment. You want to help first, you can ask questions afterwards. – And that’s exactly what the scammers know and shamelessly exploit.
We also look through police reports every day. And we see new reports about the scam every day. And unfortunately we have to say that it is still highly successful. What is striking: The victims are often older people.
WhatsApp scam reports
It's only today that we immediately come across some of the reports from yesterday:
- 68-year-old transfers four-digit euro amount
- 71-year-old recognizes fraud in time
- The 72-year-old saw through the scam
- 76-year-old transfers four-digit euro amount
- 73-year-old transfers four-digit euro amount
- 80-year-old makes two transfers for a four-digit euro amount
Unfortunately, this list continues every day.
Warn your older relatives and friends
Anyone who uses the Internet every day has probably heard of this scam. Many users also wonder how one could be “so stupid” as to fall for it. But as already said: Concern for the offspring and the need to quickly help outweighs in many cases.
That's why it's up to you: warn your parents, your grandparents, the seniors next door,...
SAVE, COPY, SHARE!
At this point we have created an image for you that you can copy and forward via WhatsApp, for example. It is intended to protect your parents and grandparents from becoming victims of this nasty scam.
We would be happy if we no longer had to warn about this scam. The more preventive information is provided here, the more likely it is that daily cases and reports can be avoided.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )