Jacqui Oatley issues urgent scam warning after fraudsters target her 83-year-old mother

The BBC commentator shared images of an exchange between her 83-year-old mum and a scammer pretending to be the broadcaster, in which they tried to trick her out of more than £2,000.

Issuing her warning on Twitter, Oatley said: "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."

In the messages the scammer pretended to be Oatley on a new number, who then said they've lost all their photos and files after talking about the commentator's daughter to build trust.

They then went to say they have bills they need to pay but can't get into their online banking.

In one message, the fraudster said: "I've got bills that I need to pay but I can't get into my online banking because it's on my old phone and this number is not registered to my bank and it will take about 2 days to be registered.

"Could you pay them for me? I'll pay you back this week."

They then sent over bank details and asked for proof of the payment once done, before saying the total amount was £2,291.34.

Explaining how the fraudster was rumbled, Oatley said: "Luckily, their spelling and grammar were terrible so that alerted my mum!"

Oatley's tweet was shared more than 2,000 times, with many sharing similar experiences of their parents being targeted.

She went on to appear on BBC Radio 5 Live's Breakfast show, saying her mum phoned her to check if she'd been asking her for money online.

"I said 'oh mum, you're not going to fall for that, somebody asking you for money online'," she told the programme.

"She said 'no, it was really realistic'. I said 'OK, can you send me the screenshots?', and I apologised to her straight away saying 'I'm so sorry for even suggesting that perhaps you might have fallen for something that was really obvious.

"This was not obvious," before explaining the technique used by the scammer and revealing another technique used, which involves fraudsters saying 'hi dad, it's me, can you save my number I've dropped my phone'.

"It is so common so I would urge you, please, to let anybody you know, particularly possibly vulnerable relatives who may be a little bit more susceptible to thse things, that if anybody contacts you on Whatsapp saying 'this is my new number/I've dropped by phone/I've broken my phone, delete the old one, and then tries to engage in conversation to familiarise themselves with you, just get them to send a photo of themselves, and then problem solved."

Oatley also said some banks have not repaid victims because they were told they had gone through the system of 'are you sure this isn't a scam' when setting up the payment through their online banking, and that they're sending money to friends and family.

In a statement, Whatsapp advised people to remain vigilent and not share their six-digit PIN with others.

"We recommend all users set up to-step verification for added security," the company said.

"If you receive a suspicious message, even if you think you know who it's from, calling or requesting a voice note is the fastest and simplest way to check someone is who they say they are.

"A friend in need is a friend worth calling."

Replying to Oatley on Twitter, the National Cyber Security Centre advised: "If you think you have received or been victim of scam messages, we encourage you to report it

"Our guidance walks you through it, including where to send screenshots of messages in cases like this where scammers use WhatsApp or other messaging apps."