Impersonation of friends and family is also common on other messaging apps, and email. This has become known as the ‘ friend in need ‘ scam. They will attempt to gain your trust in this way, before requesting money to solve a problem, such as the ‘car repair’ job above.
While the techniques involved in contacting you are slightly different, the outcome will be the same: fraudsters are after your money and/or personal data. However, we’ve also heard reports of entirely random phone numbers contacting people on WhatsApp, claiming to be a son, daughter or other family member or friend who suddenly has a ‘new number’. You can read more about the methods involved in that particular scam here. In this case, her sister had indeed been caught out by the verification scam, allowing fraudsters to access her account. ‘This is my new number’ impersonation cons Becoming suspicious, she called her sister who of course knew nothing about it, but was aware that her WhatsApp had been hacked.
Later she received another message requesting a further £500 as the bill had been ‘more than expected’. Her sister was actually away at university at the time, so the request didn’t seem unusual – she transferred £350. They started a believable conversation with her, but then asked to borrow cash to pay for ‘car repairs’.
Since then, someone targeted by that very scam got in touch when a fraudster pretending to be her sister took over her WhatsApp account. Back in May we covered the ‘WhatsApp verification message trick’.
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