Just a heads up about a new scam. If you've got older DCs it's worth a look.

[Laiste]

IsolateAndTestAgain - about £200 which is a lot to my brother

It would be a lot to most of us! :(

''Afolnerd - .... So a text asking for money wasn’t out of the ordinary, added to the fact she [mum] is on very strong painkillers so isn’t quite with it atm means she transferred them £2500! Bank are helping but unlikely she will get any of it back.''

Bloody hell! :(
That's a side of it i hadn't thought of. Someone vulnerable because of illness/not thinking clearly

What bastards these people are!

They don't try too hard to disguise them as scammy messages - they need to filter out the ones who will eventually clock on to it and not waste limited resources on them. They only one the most gullible of the gullible. (which is why it's helpful to string them along and waste their time if you can - any time spent on you waiting for the right moment to tell them to f'off is time not spent on someone venerable)

But honestly, there is soo much you could do during that interaction to verify if it is really who they say they are that I almost think the scammers deserve any money they manage to get - only almost though, in reality i think scammers like that should be publicly flogged then fed to a pack of rabid dogs

People fall these sort of scams daily.
My uncle fell for something like this and he’s just in his early sixties. He’s very hot on scams and he can’t believe he fell for it either.
He got a text from ‘Hermes’ and clicked a link.
An hour later, he got a call from someone claiming to be the bank. They told him he has clicked a malicious link and someone is trying to transfer funds from his account. Because he clicked on that link, he thought this was genuine. They told him his account is now blocked and a new safe account has been opened for him. They even told him they have booked an appointment for him to visit a branch the next day and ask for his personal banker and he got a text message with a fake appointment confirmation. It was when he got to the bank that he realised he had been scammed.
He lost almost £4000 which he was saving for his new windows. The bank only recovered less than £10.

I recently came across someone who had fallen for this. She said the scammer had managed to use a messaging style uncannily similar to her daughter's and lost over £1K.

I hadn't heard of this one, and have made a mental note to speak, not rely on messages, if there's ever a request for money.

Scammers can be very plausible, but they can't fake your DC's voice

The mum in this situation would also have had to never have transferred money to their child, or at least not recently - is that likely? I have my parents as "saved recipients" on my online bank account. If the scammer says "I've changed bank accounts too, here's my new bank details" that would seem very fishy, surely!?

(Still going to warn my parents about this though! )

@Platax

I recently came across someone who had fallen for this. She said the scammer had managed to use a messaging style uncannily similar to her daughter's and lost over £1K.

How did she not know her daughter's own bank account though?

Actually re my last post, the scammer is asking the mum to make the payments directly, to the people the "child" needs to pay. So wouldn't be expecting a familiar account.

@LanaDelBoy, that’s what the scam is driving at. They already said their banking app is not working for 2 days so they’ll ask the parent to pay a bill like rent for them so when they give the parent the different account details, they’ll just say it’s their landlord’s details, etc

Sorry, cross post

@LanaDelBoy

The mum in this situation would also have had to never have transferred money to their child, or at least not recently - is that likely? I have my parents as "saved recipients" on my online bank account. If the scammer says "I've changed bank accounts too, here's my new bank details" that would seem very fishy, surely!?

(Still going to warn my parents about this though! )

Isn't the point of the scam that the 'child' is asking the parent to transfer money to someone the child wants to pay? Because they claim they can't use their online banking immediately from a new device. So it wouldn't be to the DC's account, but any old recipient, that the parent being scammed believes their DC is vouching for as someone they need to pay (and that DC will refund parent when online banking is running properly again)

Another x-post!!

My mum doesn’t do online banking she confused them by saying I post a cheque tomorrow.

The best one I saw was the post office you owe us 49p pay here type. As you think so small can’t be a scam bet they made loads as highly likely you be waiting for parcel these days from someone.

@Tohaveandtohold

People fall these sort of scams daily. My uncle fell for something like this and he’s just in his early sixties. He’s very hot on scams and he can’t believe he fell for it either. He got a text from ‘Hermes’ and clicked a link. An hour later, he got a call from someone claiming to be the bank. They told him he has clicked a malicious link and someone is trying to transfer funds from his account. Because he clicked on that link, he thought this was genuine. They told him his account is now blocked and a new safe account has been opened for him. They even told him they have booked an appointment for him to visit a branch the next day and ask for his personal banker and he got a text message with a fake appointment confirmation. It was when he got to the bank that he realised he had been scammed. He lost almost £4000 which he was saving for his new windows. The bank only recovered less than £10.

Your poor Uncle :( 4k !!

We have loads of deliveries from Hermes and we've often had texts from them too (usually saying they ''can't find the address'' . Whole other thread!) so i would possibly have clicked the link.

However the point at which the bank is ringing saying ''a new safe account has been opened'' would ring my bell and def the appointment the next day thing. Way too efficient for any bank i've ever banked with apart from anything else!

My mum would have fallen for that though. She thinks the staff members in her building society ''keep an eye on her account'' for her, as if that branch only has about 10 customers.

@middleager

Thanks for sharing.

Neither of my 15 year olds would send me any messages like that. I'm lucky to get a grunt by text now

There is an AI that can mimic a user's way of typing including the content they'd write about... I don't know much about it.. but they could send you a grunty message that sounds like one of your teens!

Bluedabadeeba Really!? I find that quite creepy.

A couple of years ago there was a post on here from someone who had been contacted by someone she had apparently met on a holiday in another country some years back, who she’d had no contact with but who had “found” her on facebook. Went into detail about how hard his life was, how his daughter had died and his wife had left, or the other way around, I can’t quite remember, and how he had no money to live on and on and on and on it went.

The amount of people who said that clearly this man was in distress and the OP must be the only person he felt he could approach (never mind that they had only met on holiday and hadn’t spoken in the intervening six years or so,) and that she really should do what she could to try and help him out was unreal.

It was so blatantly a scam and yet poster after poster after poster accused people who said this of being unfeeling, racist, having no compassion and the list goes on. The thread was eventually pulled.

So I would bet money that if someone posted on here “I’ve had a message from DD saying she has no money to pay x bill and could I transfer the money for the bill but I don’t feel I should,” posters would be telling her that she was toxic and that her DD would probably be going NC in years to come, and wouldn’t even consider the possibility that it was a scam.

Mumsnet in a nutshell @HeartsAndClubs ^

@Laiste Thanks so much for this. I am quite savvy and streetwise, and can spot a scam a mile off, be that an email, text, or phone call. And I have never EVER been taken in. I sometimes think 'how on EARTH do these people fall for this stuff, I would never fall for it, blah blah blah...'

However this one, I suspect I MAY possibly have fallen for. This is new, and it's clever. Some would never fall for it, if they don't have children, or their oldest one is five! But it is easy to fall for if you do have older children.

I will look out for this, thank you! As some posters have said, these people are scum aren't they. Utter cunts actually.

As many people have said, there is a strong chance you won't get the money back too, because if you willingly do it, (because one of these cunty scammers con you into it,) the bank don't have to reimburse you. I have heard of cases where people lose multiple tens of thousands. Not these women who hand it over to some bloke from Morocco who they have never only met,(which I think is just daft, and males me roll my eyes,) but real clever scams that could fool most people...

I’d know that wasn’t DS as I’d receive:

Halp
Halp
Halp
Send money
Plz
Hello
Halp

😂 he is only 12 too so I assume I’d know if he had a new phone.

@LittleDandelionClock you're welcome :)
Yes it struck a chord with me too as 3 of mine are in their early 20s.

2 of them live with their bf's nearby and this is exactly the right situation. No longer lives with me, past the age of mum and dad knowing phone contracts and bank details, but young enough to get in the occasional fix and readily hollers for help.

HeartsAndClubs i think i remember that thread!

I too sat there thinking NOOOOOOO don't send any bloody cash!

@LadyCatStark

I’d know that wasn’t DS as I’d receive:

Halp
Halp
Halp
Send money
Plz
Hello
Halp

😂 he is only 12 too so I assume I’d know if he had a new phone.

HALP!

Mine would have messaged that too 10 years ago - in her mid teens, with a kind of >>> emoji.

@Laiste

@LittleDandelionClock you're welcome

😘

@LittleDandelionClock oh yes I forgot this emoji 🥺!