A man nearly lost £900 thanks to a WhatsApp scammer, until he asked one question.
Jordan Parker, 28, from Ellesmere Port, said his stepdad Michael Griffiths nearly sent the cash to what he believed was his stepdaughter Sophie.
The messages start with the fraudster WhatsApping Michael to say they lost their phone and were "using an old number for now."
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Jordan's stepdad, who thought the scammer was his stepdaughter, responded to the message and said: "Hope you find it Soph, number saved."
After a few messages back and forth, the WhatsApp fraudster then begins to make the move of asking for cash.
The scammer said: "Are you busy right now?
"Because I want to ask a favour, I'm trying to get my banking app on this old phone but it doesn't work and stressing a bit because I have a bill to pay."
Michael replies: "Anything Soph. Give me the details Soph."
The WhatsApp messages also show Michael asking whether his stepdaughter's mum should ring her phone to help locate it, to which the scammer responds no because "the battery is dead" and "the phone is really old, can't ring with it."
Michael then tells the fraudster that he can only transfer £400 at a time due to a limit with his bank to which they reply "haha thanks for helping anyway. Can you text me when it is sorted?"
After more messages back and forth, Jordan's stepdad tells the fraudster that the family don't have £989 in the bank and to call them.
The scammer then said: "How much can you transfer at the moment.
"It has to be paid within 30 minutes.
"We can't be late can you transfer it."
Michael then asks the person on the other end "what's your middle name Soph" to which the scammer questions why.
He adds: "So I know it's you Soph."
This appears to rumble the fraudster and they stopped replying and asking for the money.
Jordan decided to post the conversation on social media to warn others of the scam.
Speaking to the ECHO, the 28-year-old said since sharing the messages he has people contacting him to say they also have had a similar experience and that the conversation appears to be the same template.
Jordan said his stepdad automatically thought it was Jordan's sister who needed help and the messages seemed "believable" because it sounded like she had lost her phone.
He said: "It all added up because that's exactly what would happen."
The 28-year-old said his stepdad was shocked when they found out it wasn't Jordan's sister and said the incident was "clever."
Jordan added: "I just think it's shocking that someone would message a random number and send the same template.
"When I was reading it with Mike I thought it was my sister and then we found out it was a scam, I just thought that's definitely going to get someone.
"He could have sent through that £900 until he realised he didn't have that amount of money in his account, if that scammer said can we have £300 he would have done it straight away without even thinking."
