Scam - Hi Mum

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I've just had a WhatsApp message from a number I don't know with my daughters name on it saying she dropped her phone down the loo and is now using this new number . I sent a couple of messages back and got no reply .
I called my daughters original number and she hasn't dropped her phone down the loo !
Has anyone else had this ?

With sons and daughters returning to university I think we all need to be aware of this scam. Thanks for the thread.

How about transferring 10 pence to their account and putting something like FRAUD/MULE ACCOUNT
Or something which makes it look like it's being tracked by the police.

I meant put something that might worry them for the reference. Or put something offensive?

I love doing this with cold callers.

Especially ones about conservatory's.

Even better when they ask for my address and I start with

Flat 81. First floor. 🤣

It's a little old but MONEYBOX did a program on Mule Accounts last year that was interesting so while you are warning others about this scam you should also warn your kids about helping friends who urgently need to borrow their bank accounts. MONEYBOX MULE ACCOUNTS]]

I had two attempted scam messages from two strangers saying I owed them money for a case of red wine. Didn't reply to either.

And I can guarantee that they will. But Action Fraud is who it should be reported to. I work with the team that review all the cases that come in from Action Fraud and where appropriate arrange victim welfare visits as if someone has been targeted they may get further requests. Regards the fraudsters these types of investigations take time, these types of scams are a small part of much bigger organised crime that is going on. Just because someone might not hear from the police after reporting to Action Fraud doesn’t mean nothing happens.

Another one that’s going around is texts to say you’ve missed a delivery and need to pay to reschedule. If anyone gets one, contact the courier directly

My mum got one and binned it immediately. She realised it just did not read right as from me with the whole stilted and disjointed text. She also knows I wouldn't text either, I'd call.

@georgarina I get one of those at least once a fortnight, the last one was on Friday.
My phone just sends them straight to the spam messages folder.

I had one a while back purportedly from a friend in hospital who'd broken their leg and needed £10 urgently for something or other. It was signed off with a name that several friends have so I was a bit worried, but decided to Google the message contents and lo and behold it's a scam.

I don't have kids so wouldn't fall for this one, but I do worry about my dad getting taken in. Thankfully his mobile phone is almost always switched off!

I had one yesterday. All my 3 DC's were upstairs at the time so had no doubt it was a scam!

Because of course people sell expensive laptops to randoms who claim that their mum will pay.

I'd be quite tempted to respond along the lines of "So you got someone to give you a laptop without paying for it? Result! Just disappear, they'll never find you." After all, the scammer is hardly in a position to complain that you are being dishonest.

I'd like to be adopted by them too.

My mum would know it was a scam because she knows I wouldn't ask her for money.

My MIL would ask a million questions
"why can't you use your insurance? don't you have an old one you can use as a spare? why do you need so much money for a phone? your dad got one for £100 and it's perfectly fine, do that."

Who is buying their kids £1500 phones?!

My mum got this message while I was away on holiday earlier this year.

The scammer then asked her to transfer 2k to cover an emergency. Luckily at this point she hesitated and called my DH to check out what was happening.

She’s not a vulnerable, dithery older person, but even she was sucked in for a bit!

I got this in a text message the other day but they had ended it with a kiss on the end and none of my boys would put a kiss on the end of messages. Tried to get me to WhatsApp them but I gave the number to a friend and let him contact them and I just replied with 'which donut is this 1,2 or 3'. No answer to my text or the WhatsApp messages

Yes we did this

ive got no idea what the password is as ive forgotten….but i do remember we had a password

Dh pays for all the phones so theres no way he’d be sending them any money

I got one of these last week supposedly from DS. I knew immediately that it wasn't him as there was punctuation and a X at the end 🤣🤣🤣🤣

@GretaVanFleet There's a reason it's known as Inaction Fraud by most people and it currently in the process of being replaced because it's widely acknowledged to be absolutely useless. A friend had a fraud on their credit card recently and reported it to Action Fraud who said they couldn't do anything because it was 'identify theft' and not fraud and therefore not a crime despite the £500 that they fraudsters had stolen from his card.

I got one last week

Knew it was a scam - confirmed by the use of Mum where we use Mam!

Thanks Nancy , she's saved everything to the Cloud 😊

This is the message I got from Action Fraud

Home Office Counting Rules set out the circumstances under which we can record a crime and on this occasion the matter you reported to us cannot be classified as a police recorded crime

How can this not be a crime ? I know I didn't part with any money but obviously some people have . It's also clear from the way the wording of text messages changed that it was at least 2 different people messaging me, so as a pp pointed out, it's probably lots of people all sitting in a room doing this .

The message said that they need to pay someone for for a laptop that they bought and the number they were messaging from wasn't linked to their online banking yet.

I just find it bizarre that people don't actually talk to each other any more... all this is done via text. And no one thinks to speak each other? About borrowing a huge amount of money??