With a new scam, strangers are trying to cheat people out of their savings via the WhatsApp messaging service.
The process is similar to the well-known "grandchild trick", the victims are mostly older people.
A few days ago, a 71-year-old woman received a WhatsApp message from a woman posing as her daughter.
The sender said her online bank account had been blocked and asked for financial assistance.
The elderly woman from Frankfurt's Nordend immediately transferred almost 5,000 euros to the account she was informed of.
About an hour later, the woman was again asked to transfer money.
She wondered about that and called her real daughter.
That's how the scam broke.
According to the police, this type of crime has increased in recent weeks.
The scam always follows the same pattern.
In addition, the unknown perpetrators refuse to make a phone call and use emojis, nice words and familiar forms of address to try to convince the victims to transfer them money.
Amounts of several thousand euros are usually required.
The police warns citizens that one should generally be suspicious of cash demands via messaging services.
If in doubt, those affected should try to reach the son or daughter, or ask the sender of the message for details that only their own child can know.
In addition, a report should be made to the police.