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Mum's warning over WhatsApp Christmas party scam

Kasi Reid A woman with dark hair wearing glasses and a grey sweater sits smiling at the camera. Her hair is past her shoulders and she sits on a blue couch in front of a white wall.Kasi Reid
Kasi Reid said she thought the scammer deliberately targeted her when she would be busy and distracted

A mother is warning other parents to be careful after she says she almost fell victim to a scam on WhatsApp.

Kasi Reid, from Coventry, said she received a voice call on the messaging app from a man claiming to be part of the parents' group at her son's school.

He then sent her a code about joining a WhatsApp group to arrange a Christmas party but she spotted it would actually have transferred data between their phones.

"He would have had access to absolutely everything on my WhatsApp which was very scary," said Ms Reid.

"I do everything through WhatsApp. All of my son's stuff is on there, lots of conversations with my mum… Everything is on [there]."

She became suspicious while she was still on the phone with the man and hung up when she spotted it could have led to all her personal information going to him.

Ms Reid said it seemed like a calculated effort to scam her.

"Even the time that he called, I thought: 'You know that I'm a parent, you know that I'm rushing right now to go and do the school run'.

"[He was] dependent on me being distracted and me being rushed so I would give [him] the code."

The scam, if successful, would lead to the scammer having control of Kasi's WhatsApp.

Consumer rights expert Martyn James told BBC CWR such scams were increasingly common and could have devastating consequences.

All a scammer needs, he said, is an email address and a password.

"[They] will try to enter that into every bank account, every shop, every money service like PayPal," he said.

"As soon as one door opens, [they] can then commit fraud."

What to do if you've been scammed

Anyone can be the target of a scam. Here are some steps you can take if you think you've fallen victim to scammers.

  • Don't panic. Check if you can get your money back, report the scam, and protect yourself from further risks.
  • Contact your bank immediately. If you think that you may have been scammed, it might not be too late to stop it if you act fast. They will also help you to freeze any cards or bank accounts if they’ve been compromised.
  • Gather all details of the scam, including who you have been in contact with, what information you have shared with them, whether you've paid any money and what method you used to do this

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