I thought I was helping my son – it cost me £10,000

ANGELA Briscoe was conned out of nearly £10,000 after falling victim to a ‘mum and dad’ WhatsApp scam.

This trick involves fraudsters impersonating their target’s loved ones and asking them for money.

Mrs Briscoe’s son was travelling in Mexico when she was sent messages by a scammer pretending to be him.

The criminal asked her for help making payments that he claimed he had forgotten to do. When she tried to call her son, the scammer said he was on the other line. She ended up making four separate transactions which amounted to all of her life savings.

Mrs Briscoe, 66, from Dorset, said: ‘I was so panicked and made the transactions quickly. It has left me with lots of anxiety and I still feel very angry about it.’

Her bank, Santander, says

Mrs Briscoe was warned about

WhatsApp scams but she insisted on making the payments. It was able to retrieve some of the money, amounting to just over £5,000 – but she remains thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Former civil servant Ray Chapple, pictured above, fell victim to an authorised push payment fraud when he was contacted via WhatsApp by a scammer pretending to be his son.

The initial message read: ‘Hi dad, very stupid! I lost my phone and looked everywhere but can’t find it. So I can only be reached at this number temporarily, can you save it right away?’ The scammer then said he needed help paying two bills because his bank account had been frozen for 48 hours.

Eager to help his son, Mr Chapple, 77, from Hertfordshire, offered to pay the money, which amounted to £1,980. But he became suspicious just after making the payment.

He said: ‘After I sent the money, my “son” said it hadn’t arrived and asked if I could send it again. Alarm bells started ringing so I phoned HSBC. The next day the money landed back in my account. I do feel very lucky.’