The strangers had contacted the Lower Austrian via SMS and WhatsApp and pretended to be her son, the police said in a broadcast on Friday. The new phone number was explained with a broken cellphone. Due to financial difficulties, the alleged son asked for transfers to several German accounts, which the victim also carried out.
When the woman finally had doubts, she called her son on his previous number and realized that she had been taken in by scammers. The victim lodged a complaint with the police. The executive advised on the occasion of the incident on Monday afternoon in the broadcast to contact the relatives first if family members requested money via new telephone numbers. The unknown number should then be blocked and a complaint filed.
Source: Nachrichten
