A West Lothian mum has been targeted by a scammer who sent her messages and asked for a huge amount of money while pretending to be her daughter.
Mum-of-two Lesley Nuttall, from Livingston, shared various screenshots of her conversation over WhatsApp with the fraudster who posed as her child - claiming to have broken their phone and so had a new number.
They then said they needed money for a loan to pay off an overdue bill.
After Lesley suspected the person wasn't actually her daughter, she asked them for her middle name and said she would send the money once they confirmed it.
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Lesley, a pupil support worker, said: "I kinda knew straight away it wasn't either of my kids because it's not the way they chat to me. We usually use messenger as well, never WhatsApp.
"I messaged my daughter straight away to double check it wasn't her and it was her idea to ask the person which child I'm speaking to."
The opening exchanges between Lesley and the scammer read: "Hi mum, can you can you save my new number my old phone broken you can ring and text me on this one."
The scammer then said: "I have a lot of stress on my head at the minute. Basically I had a bill that's supposed to be paid today but because I've got a new number I can't access my bank account for 48 hours."
Lesley, who had already sensed something was wrong at this stage, asked how much the bill was and the person replied with: "1215.33."
Lesley then joked: "I can give you the 33p and if you tell me your middle name I'll give you the rest."
After various other exchanges, in which the scammer started to list how much they needed the money, Lesley got fed up and called them out.
She added: "I told my daughter, wait and see and I bet they ask for money. I got angry and just decided to call them out. I know I could have called them all sorts of names but what's the point? They would just move on to the next victim, nasty people scamming innocent people."
Lesley has since reported the scam to the police and has warned others of falling for a similar attempt to con people.
