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Fraudsters target people in Wales with Welsh language messages

04 Jan 2022 2 minute read
Hooded hacker at keyboard with binary code in back. By David Whelan (CC 1.0)

Fraudsters are targeting people in Wales with messages in the Welsh language.

The minister, author and poet, Aled Lewis Evans, from Wrexham, has revealed that his email has been hacked by scammers, who have used it to message his contacts with requests for money in his mother tongue.

In the message, someone posing as Aled, asks for the money to be transferred to a gift card in order to help a friend who has liver cancer.

The Welsh language messages that contain a number of grammatical errors, have the appearance of having been translated using Google Translate.

Aled has sent a message to his contacts warning them that his account has been hacked and that the emails asking for money are a scam.

In a post on social media, he said: “Please ignore any e mail asking for money – my e mail has been hacked. Sorry about this. Aled.”

One message from a scammer to one of Aled’s contacts said: “I’m sorry to trouble you with this post, I need you to get a Google play gift card for a friend who has liver cancer, it’s her birthday today and I promised to get it for her, but I can’t do this now because I am out of town at the moment and my attempt to buy it online is unreasonable.

“Can you get it from any nearby shop for me? I will pay you back after arriving. Let me know and you can deal with this so I can tell you the sum and how to get it to me.”

The original Welsh message said: “Mae’n ddrwg gen i am eich trafferthu gyda’r post hwn, mae arnaf angen i chi gael cerdyn rhodd chwarae Google ar gyfer ffrind sydd â chanser yr afu, mae’n ben-blwydd arni heddiw ac addewais ei gael ar ei chyfer, ond ni allaf gwnewch hyn nawr oherwydd fy mod i allan o’r dref ar hyn o bryd ac roedd fy holl ymdrech i’w brynu ar-lein yn afresymol.

“A allwch ei gael o unrhyw siop o’ch cwmpas i mi? Byddaf yn ad-dalu ichi ar ôl cyrraedd. Rhowch wybod i mi a allwch drin hyn fel y gallaf ddweud wrthych y swm a sut i’w cael ataf.”


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Morris Dean
Morris Dean
2 years ago

Sort of pleased that Welsh is gaining profile as a daily language of choice that it’s being targeted in this way.

Though obviously I would hate to imagine these sorts of scams succeeding.

Gareth Evans
Gareth Evans
2 years ago
Reply to  Morris Dean

My thoughts exactly.

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