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On the BBC show Rip Off Britain this week, Jackie and David explained how they fell victim to this fraud. In October 2021, whilst their son Alex was in university, Jackie received a WhatsApp message from a number she did not recognise.
Jackie said: “I was saying ‘Alex can you hear me?’ and then the phone went dead.
“I then received a message that said ‘Sorry mum, can’t hear you. Can you try phoning me?’”
At this point, Jackie was invested and thought this was her son.
After messaging back on forth trying to get on the phone, the criminals asked Jackie for cash.
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Posing as Alex, they asked her for £1,980 to pay off a loan.
Jackie continued: “I was in blind panic and all I wanted to do was help him.”
Jackie ended up paying the scammers what they had asked for.
However, she and her husband David were worried about the request and the situation that Alex might have been in, so David went up to Alex’s university to help him sort out the money issues.
“I feel totally violated and annoyed at myself for falling for this, and I can’t shake this off.”
Luckily Jackie was able to receive a full refund from her bank however not all victims will be this lucky.
This scam preys on panic and the protective emotion of worried parents.
Fraud expert David Clarke warned people to be on their guard as there are sophisticated scammers behind these messages.
He said: “The most devious thing that we’ve seen of later is that they will do this online research and personalise it to you and make it appear even more convincing. Very clever, very sinister and it works.
“Be careful what you put out there and post and be careful of your security and privacy settings to make sure they are working hard to protect you."