A mum has issued an urgent warning to people over a WhatsApp scam.
Angela Briscoe appeared on today's edition of This Morning to urge people to be vigilant after she nearly lost her life savings to the "mum and dad" WhatsApp scam. The fraud sees scammers impersonate their target's loved ones and plead for money.
Angela told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield how her son, Ed, was travelling in Mexico when she was sent messages by a scammer asking for money. Angela provided her son's name in her response, which she described as the "first mistake".
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She added: "I gave the name of my son and straight away they said 'yes, I'm Ed'. I carried on the conversation in Spanish and the person responded, which gave me an affirmation that it was my son and from there he kept asking me for money because he said I've got to pay these bills and I need to pay them now."
Holly said the scam plays into every parents' "insecurities" before probing whether Angela tried to phone her son to verify his identity and check if he was OK. However, Angela said the number was engaged.
She added: "He sent a message and said I am with one of the people I have to pay so please just send the money." Angela sent four payments over to the scammers, which totalled around £10,000.
Angela contacted the bank when the fourth payment didn't go through, who quizzed the NHS secretary on whether she was being scammed. The mum-of-four rumbled the fraudsters when he failed to answer a question only her son would know when she asked the name of his teddy bear when he was a child.
Angela was eventually able to contact her son who confirmed he had not sent her any messages. She added: "It was really hard to accept that £10,000 had disappeared from my bank and I had done it."
Angela banks with Santander who were fortunately able to refund the third and fourth transactions. She was also refunded half of the first transaction and the bank urged people to be vigilant of fraudsters.
A statement said: "We're sorry Ms Briscoe fell victim to criminals. Our fraud prevention systems stopped three of the four payments and these payments were only released after Ms Briscoe spoke to our customer service team. We strongly urge customers to verify who message them via an unknown number before sending any money."
A statement from WhatsApp added: "WhatsApp protects our users personal messages with end-to-end encryption. We can all play a role in keeping our accounts safe by remaining vigilant from the threat of scammers If you receive a suspicious message. Calling or requesting a voice note is the fastest and simplest way to check if someone is who they say they are."
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