More and more fraudsters hang around on WhatsApp.
The police use a perfidious scam to warn of criminals.
Parents and seniors are targeted by criminals.
Munich - Anyone who is on the Internet must be careful: Cybercrime - i.e. crimes on the Internet - is a constantly growing problem.
Anyone who picks up on the fraudsters can quickly lose several thousand euros.
Now there are more and more cases of a particularly perfidious scam.
The police are warning of a new fraud on the Internet, or more precisely: of dangerous messages on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp: Police warn of fraud - thousands of euros are involved
In Essen (North Rhine-Westphalia) the cases have recently increased.
Attempts at fraud are increasing all over Germany.
The police warn smartphone users to be particularly careful with some messages on the WhatsApp messenger service.
The scam against unknown perpetrators follows a very similar pattern every time.
Anyone who knows them can look through them with very simple means - and save themselves a lot of money that they might otherwise have lost forever.
WhatsApp scams: Parents and grandparents particularly at risk
The scam is already known as telephone fraud - and unfortunately it is still often successful.
Seniors in particular often lose a lot of money with the so-called grandchildren's trick.
Actually, scammers call seniors in this rip-off and pretend to be their grandchildren or other relatives.
They either tell of major financial problems or, in some cases, of troubles with the judiciary, which they could only solve by paying a certain sum of money.
The trick is now fairly well known, but it still works in some cases.
Now fraudsters are trying this scam digitally - the grandchildren's trick 2.0, if you will.
Police warn: attempted fraud on WhatsApp across Germany
The scams are very similar to phone scams.
The potential victims receive a WhatsApp message from a number they do not know.
"Hello grandma, my cell phone is broken and this is my new number," it says, for example.
Usually these messages are provided with several emojis.
Such a story may even be quite believable at first, the smileys make the news seem personal.
Some people actually save the numbers in their cell phones.
And thus open the door to fraudsters without knowing it.
Just recently, numerous users worried about a hacking attack on WhatsApp accounts.
Dangerous news: Cyber criminals are up to mischief on WhatsApp
Because shortly after this first contact, another WhatsApp message from the supposed grandson follows.
You can read about major emergency situations or stupid coincidences because of which the sender urgently needs money.
Most of these are large sums of money: According to the police, there are often invoices worth several thousand euros.
A scenario that is often used: Because the supposed grandson's old cell phone is broken, he no longer has access to his online banking.
Unfortunately, there is a bill pending that he has to pay urgently.
The request: The alleged grandmother should advance the amount.
As soon as the bank app works again for the grandchildren, he will transfer the money back immediately.
I promise, grandma.
Fraud: the police and consumer advice center clarify via WhatsApp
However, if you actually transfer money to an unknown account after such a chat, you will usually not get a cent back.
In truth, the savings are lost and a fraudster richer by several thousand euros.
What is new about the "grandchildren's trick" is that not only senior citizens are written to, but younger adults too: According to the Lower Saxony consumer center, for example, a woman from Lower Saxony lost over 42.00 euros because she thought she was transferring the money to her daughter.
Police advise: dial an emergency call for WhatsApp fraud
The police provide some tips for people who receive such a message from a supposed family member.
Most importantly, never just transfer money.
Anyone who suddenly receives a message from a grandchildren, daughter or other relative on a strange cell phone number should try to contact that family member using the old number to be sure.
If it turns out that the grandson is still using the old cell phone number, the victim of the attempted fraud should save the chat history and call 911 to file a criminal complaint.
The saved or photographed chat history including someone else's cell phone number can be shown to the police, which may give important clues about the perpetrators.
Criminals on WhatsApp: How to protect yourself from the fraudsters
Due to the frequent attempts at fraud, the State Criminal Police Office of Rhineland-Palatinate generally advises you to be careful with your own personal data - such as your mobile phone number - on the Internet. The profile picture on WhatsApp should also be chosen with care: On the basis of the picture, perpetrators could, for example, estimate the age of the victims - and thus find out whether they are writing “Grandma” or “Papa”. A tip: In WhatsApp's privacy settings, you can choose who is allowed to see your profile picture - for example, only the people whose numbers you have saved in your own contacts. Stiftung Warentest recently published some tips on how to best protect yourself and your data on WhatsApp.
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The police have been aware of the grandchildren's trick on WhatsApp for a few weeks.
But criminals also use many other ways to rip people off on the news platform.
