New scam on WhatsApp: woman loses several thousand euros
Created: 04/04/2022 10:13 am
By: Bettina Stuhlweißenburg
The scammers reported via Whatsapp © Ralph Peters / imago
The police are looking for fraudsters who have taken in a Miesbacher and a Schlierseerin.
The crooks pretended to be relatives via Whatsapp and asked for money.
Miesbach - Within a few days, the two women concerned reported fraud to the police in Miesbach.
One of them - a 61-year-old from Miesbach - had received a Whatsapp message on March 29 from an unknown number.
WhatsApp scam: woman transfers alleged son 3200 euros
The writer claimed to be her son and to have a new cell phone number.
He is in a financial emergency and urgently needs 3200 euros.
It was only after the woman had transferred the money to her alleged son that the matter seemed dubious to her.
By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Miesbach newsletter.
A 66-year-old woman from Schliersee had a similar experience on Saturday, April 2nd.
In her case, her alleged daughter reported via WhatsApp with an allegedly new phone number.
In this case, too, the unsuspecting woman did not notice the fraud at first - and transferred 1,400 euros to a Spanish account.
Shortly thereafter, however, the right daughter got in touch - and the scam was blown.
Fraud on WhatsApp: Police investigations are ongoing
During the reporting to the police, the scammers contacted their victim again.
Investigations are ongoing in both cases.
As reported by the Miesbach police, the cell phone numbers in many of these fraud cases are "spoofed".
This means scammers are using fake phone IDs.
The investigations into account data often lead abroad;
especially to Africa.
The police point out that they should be careful and suspicious, especially when it comes to money requests via WhatsApp, and to contact the supposed "relatives" personally again before money transfers are commissioned.
You can find more current news from the district of Miesbach and the Tegernsee region at Merkur.de/Miesbach.