Firm’s boss loses £800 in scam on Whatsapp
Thought he was helping an old friend
AROCHDALE businessman was left ‘petrified’ after forking out £800 to scammers - when he thought one of his oldest friends had messaged him on Whatsapp.
When Mohammed Yousaf was asked for help, he assumed the plea was genuine.
The 56-year-old was messaged from an account belonging to a man who he had been friends with for 50 years.
It began with the greeting ‘Salaam’, before the message: “Please I need a little assistance from you...”
Mohammed was concerned for his friend and asked how he could help.
He was told his mate was trying to send £800 to an account, but it wouldn’t work and he was asked if he could make the payment instead - with his friend reimbursing him the next day.
But the person behind the messages was not Mohammed’s friend - and by the time he realised, it was too late.
“They are very sophisticated,” Mohammed said.
“They go to that length to scam people and it worked on me.
“I’m a clever man but on this occasion, it shows that I’m not that clever.”
The conversation came out of the blue after 9.20pm last Monday (January 15).
Mohammed was acting out of genuine concern for his friend when he decided to send the money over to the account details provided, with no reason to suspect his old pal wouldn’t return the cash at first.
“When someone asks for a favour you go out of your way to help them,” Mohammed said.
“I said ‘no problem’. I thought there must have been a genuine reason why he would Whatsapp me at that time.”
Within minutes, Mohammed had set up the £800 payment online, asked the person he believed was his friend to check the details and sent over the money.
It was only after that point that he began to suspect something wasn’t right.
Mohammed said: “I put the money in and I’ve then noticed his language was a bit different in the message, so I thought I should call him.
“It kept ringing and ringing, then he called me back.
“I said ‘I just transferred you £800’.
“He said his Whatsapp had been hacked.
“He said ‘I’m sorry I can’t help you Mohammed, I’m really, really upset that you had to pay £800 for me and it was a hack’. I got up, I started shaking and sweating.”
Mohammed, who recovered from a heart attack last September, began to panic.
The businessman, who runs Auto Shop in Deeplish, contacted his bank Natwest to explain the situation.
Luckily for him, the bank was soon able to resolve the issue and Mohammed received a letter on Wednesday confirming he would be reimbursed £800.
“Thank God, because others might not be so lucky,” he said.
“People should call [the person they think they have a message from] before they transfer any money to their account, otherwise it could be a risk.”
Meta, which runs Whatsapp, says it is unable to see the content of messages on its platform due to end-to-end encryption - but advice is given to prevent users falling victim to scams.
●●PEOPLE who receive messages similar to those Mohammed received are advised:
●●STOP and think - look out for suspicious behaviour, including being asked for money
●●STOP the conversation - call the person you believe you are speaking to and don’t do what you are being asked to do
●●BLOCK and report suspicious accounts on Whatsappupdate your privacy settings and use two-step verification to secure your account.
Incidents of scams can be reported to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040.