A quick-witted teacher has shared images showing how he tricked a “scammer” into sending him a selfie in exchange for money.
Scott Campbell was initially sent messages from the man, known as John Swag, on a betting site forum in 2016.
‘John’ has been messaging him on WhatsApp ever since, and pops up every now and then to request money from 45-year-old Scott.
On Sunday, John got in touch again and messaged Scott to ask him to transfer £425 to put towards hospital costs for his "sick mother".
Scott, from Perth, decided to flip the situation round and wind up John by requesting that he send across a birthday message for his fictional brother, in return.
The teacher named his ‘sibling’ after cup winning St Johnstone keeper Zander Clark, and sent him a photo of a wallet full of cash to entice him.
Moments later John sent a selfie holding up a piece of paper with "Big Zander pumped my maw" written on it after falling for Scott's scam.
Scott posted about his prank on Facebook on Monday, writing: "Scammer tried to get me to pay for his mum's hospital bills.
"I said I would do it if he sent a birthday message."
The post attracted dozens of comments from social media users, many of whom found Scott’s gag hilarious.
Sarah Gordon said: "Howling."
Christopher Woodlock said: "Sucker."
Samantha Hays said: "Well done Scott."
Liz Stell added: "Chancer."
Speaking today about his prank Scott explained how he and ‘John’ met online in 2016, when he began messaging Scott on betting sites saying he couldn’t place bets.
"If he is speaking to me though then he is not speaking to old ladies and I think that's a worthy price to pay,” Scott commented.
"I'm quite a massive Saints fan so when I had to think up a name for my brother, it was the first one that sprung to mind.
"He seemed to believe a lot of what I told him including when I said I take thousands of children to the circus and that I had a voice recognition bank.
"I've been around the block a couple of times and John hasn't woken up early enough to fool me."
Scott has also shared images of conversations between him and John showing the "chancer" requesting money at various times over the past five years,
It is thought that more than £2b was lost last year to various scamming activities.
