According to Bolton News, unsuspecting parents are being targeted by scammers in a re-emerging phishing scam that has seen victims lose thousands.
A warning has been issued for the new ‘Hi Mum’ scam which sees fraudsters pose as a son or daughter asking for money to replace a lost phone, or because of a financial emergency. The scam messages work by convincing parents into thinking their child has a new number and to delete the old one.
What soon follows is the scammer asking for help and encouraging for the money to be sent over, leaving the parent out of pocket by typically thousands. It is believed that the scam uses a coordinated ‘spray and pray’ strategy, seeing the scammers get hold of a list of phone numbers and contact the unsuspecting targets.
The National Cyber Security Centre has previously said: “Urgency is one sign we advise looking out for and scammers can be very clever with their targeting.”
It remains a very clever and successful scam to use WhatsApp as part of a way to socially engineer people into handing over money but the advice remains the same as with anything unsolicited and unverified such as with phishing emails. Whenever people request money, whether you know them or not, it is vital that you verify the claims and follow it up with secondary levels of authentication such as a phone or video call. Scammers often ‘spray and pray’ with the quick fire texts hoping to catch a hit which they so often do. They are extremely clever with their wording and can often influence people into handing over money with ease so people must remain cautious however sure they may feel.