WHATSAPP users are being warned after a grandad was tricked into sending £24,000 to cruel scammers pretending to be his son.
Nigel Gammon, 77, fell victim to the scam after the fraudsters messaged him and later stole his credit card information.
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Nigel, from Kent Town, Adelaide, uses WhatsApp to contact his son Jock who recently moved overseas.
He received a text message that seemed completely legitimate, reports 9News.
It read: “Hii dad. My other phone crashed, but this is my temporary number…
“I have a payment that must be paid today. Can you send me a picture from the front and back of your credit card…”
Nigel was left in shock when he discovered the truth and said: “Anyone that gets a message from their son would feel the same way if you can help you do it
“I’m very upset about the whole incident, I think my son particularly feels guilty.
“It was one o’clock in the morning over there and I just didn’t want to ring him up, which I should have.”
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The devastated grandad continued: “The worst part was when they closed it off they put a heart as a closure.”
Only £8,000 has been recovered so far.
Police said this type of scam is particularly common and described it as “fairly simple”.
Scammers target their victims, find information about them on social media and then use emojis to build a rapport.
WhatsApp has now rolled out the ability to make group conversations bigger.
WhatsApp users should consider turning on a genius privacy feature called “message timer”.
WhatsApp users have also been warned about yet another malicious trick that could be used by cyber criminal masterminds.
