The scam starts with you receiving a message such as “Hi Mum Add this number to your phone as I’ve lost my phone and using a temporary number” or “Hey mum it’s me. I got a new number u can delete the old one” or something similar.

The scammer is pretending to be one of your children in the hope of then conning you with a story of problems leading to you sending them some money.

The story might be about how they were mugged or their bank account has been hacked or they have lost their wallet and cards – anything to provide an urgent reason for you to send them some money.

One recipient of this text replied “Which son is that?  and gave her two son’s names.  Then she became suspicious and the scammer slipped up by using ‘backstop name’, instead of surname.

Another recipient of these messages said that the scammer could even quote her maiden name as proof of being the woman’s child.  That scammer must have done some research on the victim before sending the messages.

That mum called her daughter to talk it through rather than just using WhatsApp!

Initially, she believed it was a genuine message and she replied: “Which me is it?”

The scammer responded: “Your oldest and cutest child xx.”

The mum wrote back: “Good luck x.”

She was then told: “I have a little problem that I can’t solve… can you help me with it?”. “Because of that new device I have to transfer all apps. But the banking app has put a 48-hour security on the app due to fraud. All nice but I have to pay 2 payments. Could you possibly pay for it for me and I’ll return it soon as possible? Sorry to bother u with this.”

Fortunately, instead of sending the money, the Mum phoned her daughter – who confirmed she wasn’t the person sending the messages asking for money.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.