People in Norfolk are being warned about scammers pretending to be their mothers on Whatsapp in order to steal money.
Norfolk Trading Standards is alerting people to be aware of messages where scammers attempt to impersonate family members in an attempt to steal money.
The message usually starts: "Hi mum, I dropped my phone, please use this new number and delete the old one from your contacts."
After several seeming innocent messages such as one saying 'hugs', the sender will highlight a problem such as a broken item which needs money to be transferred to fix, or an urgent bill which needs to be paid.
Trading Standards advice with messages like this is to always be suspicious, especially if a request for money is involved, and to try to contact the person who the message claims to be via another known number or method.
The scam messages can be reported via the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133.
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