Scots mum conned out of £2.5k by callous scammer pretending to be daughter
dailyrecord.co.ukA Scots mum was conned out of more than £2,500 by a callous scammer who pretended to be her daughter. Sheelagh Stewart, from East Calder, believed she was talking to daughter Beth, 22, when she received a message saying she had dropped her phone down the toilet and it had been soaked with water.
The 65-year-old pharmacy worker said the convincing messages 'from Beth' explained that she was using a temporary number because of the damage to her device.
The sophisticated con artist, posing as Beth, then sent the mum a panicked text saying her online banking had been frozen for 48 hours due to a security policy.They claimed to have an £1390.45 invoice they urgently needed to pay for a buy now pay later order.Sheelagh explained that the wording and grammar used in the messages was so similar to Beth's that she believed they were genuinely from her daughter and instantly transferred the cash.
Speaking to the Record the mum said: "I was convinced the messages were from Beth. The grammar was the same, there was no broken English, it didn't seem like an odd message to receive from her. "It never crossed my mind to question it.
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