Fraudsters have once again ripped off two Vorarlbergers in the past few days. A 78-year-old from Dornbirn fell for the WhatsApp scam and transferred more than 3,800 euros. A woman from Unterland (48) lost almost 400 euros when she complied with a payment request that was said to be from the tax office.
The 78-year-old was contacted last week by previously unknown perpetrators who pretended to be his son, saying that the old mobile phone was broken. The alleged filius asked that two bills totaling 3,831 euros be paid. The trusting father transferred the sum to a German account. The “tax office scam” is also not new, but is always successful: taxpayers are asked by SMS to settle an outstanding claim. In order to avoid the visit of the bailiff, a 48-year-old transferred 387 euros. She also realized too late that she had been taken in by scammers.
source site-12