The famous football commentator revealed on Twitter that her mother had received an “incredibly believable” WhatsApp message which turned out to be a scam.

Like other similar WhatsApp attacks, this latest scam started with a scammer who messaged Oatley’s mother from an unknown number and posed as Jacqui herself.

WhatsApp text messages said the reason it was from an unknown number was because it was a new phone. The message then asked for money – around £2,000, to help pay the bills as the new device was not yet able to access online banking.

They also postponed any phone call requests about the issue and then sent bank details for the money to be transferred.

Along with other scams reported by Express.co.uk, WhatsApp scammers also said they needed money to replace a broken phone.

Luckily, Oatley’s mother realized the messages were a scam because the cyber-scammer’s “spelling and grammar were terrible”.

And Oatley took to Twitter to make sure other people weren’t victimized and to raise awareness.

She posted: “Want to warn you about a scam my lovely kind mum nearly fell for. It was incredibly believable. Someone is impersonating you but on a different number, contacts a loved one and asks to quickly pay a bill for you before reimbursing them. Mum in green”.

Oatley’s post received many replies from other Twitter users saying they knew someone targeted by the scam.

In a later interview with BBC Breakfast, Oatley explained that a Twitter user told him about a victim who had paid £6,000 for the “sophisticated” and “realistic” scam.

She said: “Since I tweeted this message a few days ago with a few screenshots, so many people have responded saying ‘it happened to my mum’, ‘it happened to my dad “- they were absolutely convinced.

Oatley added: “I spoke to someone yesterday whose friend actually paid £6,000 in a virtually identical scam and that was because they found access to their actual WhatsApp messages so that they can find references to the names of people in their family.

“So if someone is texting a mum or dad and they get a text saying ‘oh I dropped my phone in the toilet I broke my phone I got this phone at the moment but the microphone isn’t working and I can’t call you”, then they use personal names – “oh Dave is out for the day and I can’t reach him but I just have this bill to pay”, and it can come into the message conversation so that you are not immediately asked for money and that is why it is so realistic.