For months, criminals have been trying to rob victims of Whatsapp using a variant of the grandchild trick. Now the police are taking a surprising step.

For months, the topic has been an integral part of police reports: every day across the country, scammers try to use WhatsApp tricks to get money out of the pockets of the inexperienced. The Jena police are now trying to create more awareness of the scams. And uses a tool that once symbolized WhatsApp fraud.

In a graphic intended as a chain letter, the police addressed the population. In the style of a chat, there is a warning about the rampant scam. And asked to spread it like a chain letter. By setting the graphic as the status message of the messenger.

Common trick

The chat goes into the most important trick of scammers. They report from an unknown number, address the recipient as parents or grandparents and claim to have a new number. If the chat partners respond to this, they engage them in a conversation that always ends up being about the same thing: money. There is then a complaint about a supposedly open bill or the non-payable rent. And asked to please settle them.

The request to exchange the old number for the new one is particularly perfidious. This is to guarantee that the victims do not even ask about the old number. Unfortunately, the deception maneuver is always enormously successful. Almost every day there are reports that individual victims have transferred thousands of euros.

How to use police status

The best tips for spotting the scam are now summarized in the chat-style status message. If you get the message that a family member or acquaintance has a new number, you should not save it immediately, but first verify the change using the old number. Unexpected requests to transfer money sent via chat should also be viewed with skepticism. “This is probably an attempt at fraud,” says the graphic very clearly.

If you want to support the campaign, it’s very simple. You can find the info graphic under this link. Save the picture on the smartphone. Now open Whatsapp and select the status tab on the bottom left, then “My Status” and select the image you just saved. Now the picture can be seen as your status for 24 hours.

Incidentally, the action taken by the Jena police is not entirely new. The Lüneburg police had already offered graphics for the scam as a status. But they weren’t as chic and easy to understand as the current one.

Source: Police press portal