BBC sports commentator Jacqui Oatley has issued an urgent scam warning after fraudsters targeted her mum via WhatsApp.
Sharing the message with her 162,000 followers, Jacqui posted images of a conversation between her unsuspecting mum and a scam artist impersonating the commentator.
I’m keen to warn you about a scam which my lovely, kind mum so nearly fell for. It was incredibly believable. Someone pretends to be you but on a different number, contacts someone close to you and asks them to quickly pay a bill for you before you pay them back. Mum in green 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/SroiuftrpN
— Jacqui Oatley (@JacquiOatley) July 13, 2022
She tweeted: “I’m keen to warn you about a scam which my lovely, kind mum so nearly fell for. It was incredibly believable.
“Someone pretends to be you but on a different number, contacts someone close to you and asks them to quickly pay a bill for you before you pay them back. Mum in green.”
After striking a seemingly harmless conversation, the scammer asked for help with “another problem” before asking for £2291.34 to help pay the bills.
In another tweet, she added: Freaky that they have WhatsApp named in your name so it’s even more believable than a random number. Mum had tried to call me but I missed her call.
“Luckily, their spelling and grammar were terrible so that alerted my mum!”
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