I was scammed out of £16,000 on WhatsApp after scammers pretended to be my daughter

A WOMAN has urged others to be careful after being scammed out of nearly £16,000 in a WhatsApp scam.

Paula Boughton was stung by scammers who tricked her into thinking she was talking to her daughter Sam.

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She says she received a message from her daughter explaining that she had a new phone number.

The scammers then asked them to delete Sam’s current contact details before speaking to the unsuspecting mother.

Paula explained: “I received a text message from my daughter asking me to delete the old phone number as she has been given a new number.

“After a few lines of text, she asked me if I would make a transaction for her, which I agreed to if she sent me the sort code, payee details, and account number.”

The mum complied with requests after being convinced she was speaking to Sam because the messages were “personal and genuine”.

She said the Whatsapp The conversation correlated with what was going on in her life and saw Paula shake off her worries.

But it turned out to be a pretty expensive mistake – and she only realized it when the scammer posing as Sam didn’t respond to her goodnight text.

Paula said: “I assumed it was my daughter and I thought well, given the situation, I could do that and I feel fooled.”

Luckily her bank, Santander, was able to stop the last transaction and refunded the mother the rest of the money.

Daughter Sam described how she “felt ill” when Paula revealed she had been cheated out of almost £16,000.

She said: “Why on earth when I know she knows things and technology and you know there are a lot of scams and fake scams out there, why would she pay that kind of money?”

“I was angry, I was really angry, I had a lot of mixed feelings.

“Then when I got here and learned more about the situation, I realized how she paid for it and how she got to this point.”

Paula’s case is currently under investigation by the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

WHATSAPP ALERTS

The mother and daughter have now shared their worrying story to warn other WhatsApp users not to fall for the same trick.

The messaging app is regularly attacked by cunning cyber criminals.

A WhatsApp expert previously shared the three warning signs to look out for to avoid scams.

Brian Higgins, security specialist at Comparitech, urged The Sun users to delete suspicious messages immediately.

Brits have also been warned to be on the lookout for a new scam that allows hackers to take over your account with a single phone call.

They somehow bypass the security features of the messaging app to gain access to a Whatsapp account without being detected by the user.

But there is hope – as one woman shared how she got revenge on scammers who targeted her via WhatsApp.

Amanda Seimetz told followers her “cautious true story” and how cyber thieves almost convinced her she was talking to her bank.