A mum has told how she was conned out of nearly £10,000 about falling victim to a sophisticated WhatsApp scam. The 'mother and father' scam saw fraudsters impersonating her son and asking for money.
The scammer sent Angela Briscoe messages pretending to be her son, who was travelling in Mexico at the time. The fraudster asked for help to make payments that he had "forgotten" to do.
Believing that it was her son abroad in need of help, Mrs Briscoe made four separate payments, wiping out her life savings, reports BirminghamLive.
Speaking to ITV's This Morning, Mrs Briscoe, from Dorset, said: "I was at the office and I got this message which said 'please change my mobile number to this one', so I immediately said I'd do it."
She explained after how she asked if it was her son, Ed - and in doing so, made an error. "That was my first mistake, giving them the name of my son," she added.
This exchange ended up costing her £10,000 over several transactions. The scammer, claiming to be her son, kept saying he needed help.
She added: "I said 'how did you know I had this money?' Good job I have my savings." She said she had become so panicked she made the transactions quickly. It left her with anxiety and she "still feel very angry about it".
Santander, the bank she uses, said Mrs Briscoe had been warned about WhatsApp scams - but insisted on carrying out payments. The bank was able to retrieve £5,000 back, but she still remains out of pocket. Almost £700million was lost to fraudsters in April, according to Action Fraud.
