A Cuban resident in the United States identified as Aniela lost $1,900 after being the victim of a scam in which criminals hacked her trusted friend's WhatsApp account and, posing as her, requested bank transfers under the pretext of a purchase in Cuba. The woman reported the fraud in a TikTok video published last Wednesday, where she detailed how she fell for the deception.
According to Aniela, it all began when her friend in Cuba agreed to buy an electric bicycle and a solar panel worth $1,400 from a supposed seller who demanded payment via transfer from abroad, claiming that "he didn't want cash because he had too much cash on hand." The scammers, who already had control of her friend's WhatsApp account, contacted Aniela posing as her.
What makes the case particularly misleading is that Aniela spoke to her friend both via video call and phone call before making the payments, unaware that WhatsApp had already been compromised. “Come on, how is it a scam if I’m talking to her on camera right now and we’re texting each other? I mean, what’s the scam?” she replied to her husband when he suggested she be cautious.
Once she hung up the phone, the scammers —who were controlling the WhatsApp account— sent her the details for the transfer. Aniela made two payments from her Bank of America account: one for $1,400 and another for $500. The criminals even asked her in advance what bank she used, suggesting that they tailor the scam according to each victim's financial institution.
It was her husband who insisted on calling the friend directly, and that call revealed the fraud. "If I said not to send any money, who are you sending money to?" was the real friend's response upon finding out. At that moment, the scammers were already asking Aniela for an additional $500.
"I lost one thousand nine hundred dollars with the story of shopping in Cuba and that they send money through transfers from here," the woman summarized, acknowledging that the blow was devastating: "The work one goes through here to make a few dollars."
Aniela immediately called her bank and filed a formal complaint, although the bank itself warned her that the investigation could take up to 45 days. She admitted that, having consciously authorized the transfers, it is unlikely she will get her money back.
This type of fraud follows a documented pattern seen in multiple cases during 2026: scammers convince someone in Cuba to share the six-digit verification code that WhatsApp sends via SMS, allowing them to register the account on another device and impersonate that person to their contacts abroad. The most commonly used bait—solar panels, bicycles, and electric tricycles—directly addresses the energy crisis affecting the island.
In June, another Cuban in the U.S. lost $6,000 in a similar scam involving an electric tricycle, where the criminals used manipulated images with artificial intelligence to simulate a fake delivery. In July, another scam with solar panels was documented that employed the same WhatsApp hacking mechanism to request transfers from family members abroad.
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