Katherine Maluk from Ashton-under-Lyne became the target of a scammer pretending to be one of her three daughters on messaging platform WhatsApp.  

Though she didn’t fall prey to the scam, she wants other to be careful of ‘relatives’ asking for money.  

Posing as Katherine’s daughter, the scammer requested one thousand pounds urgently. 

Katherine actually rang her daughter before realising she’d been speaking to a stranger.  

She added: “It’s much more plausible on WhatsApp and it really did work me up trying to figure out how they found me.  

“People need to be really aware cause scams can have a devastating effect. I was lucky, but I’m frightened other people will fall for it because it’s so easy.  

“When you think it’s a family member contacting you, you want to help them and you forget all about the danger.”  

Katherine reported the incident to Action Fraud and they’ve passed it on to the police. Her family have also been spreading news of the incident online in hopes of warning more people.  

If you do receive a call, text message or email from a relative asking for money, the best approach is to call a relative directly to verify the information.  

However, if you can’t get in touch with a relative, you could ask the caller a specific question that an impersonator wouldn’t be able to answer, such as knowledge of a family event.  

To find out more about reporting fraud, go to https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime. 

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