A mum has shared how she felt “violated” by a sophisticated scam targeting mothers across Wales.
Patricia Land is one of many parents to have been targeted by fraudsters posing as one of her children and wants to speak out to prevent it from happening to others.
Patricia was at her home in Bridgend in January when she received a WhatsApp message from a new number claiming to be her son Mark.
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“It was so clever, so so clever,” she explained. “He text saying: ‘Hi Mum, my phone has fallen, it’s completely broken, I’ve had to get a new one, can you save this new number’ then some kisses.”
(Image: Patricia Land)
The plausibility of dropping and breaking a phone paired with the friendly tone meant no alarm bells rung. Patricia chatted with her ‘son’, checking whether he had managed to recover his pictures and data as well as updating her husband with the new number.
It wasn’t until after those messages that the fraudster mentioned that due to having a new device they were unable to log into their online banking while it was being verified and he needed to pay his rent.
This all made perfect sense to Patricia as her son is a working professional and rents a home in Cardiff and she believed he was setting up a new device.
(Image: Patricia Land)
“He…
