Warning! Just about fell for con…

[EatSleepFlyRepeat]

I just wanted to warn parents who may have just dropped their young adults off at Uni this week about a potential scam that I just about fell for earlier today… basically I got a text message from a random number saying something along the lines of ‘mum, I’ve smashed my phone, I’ve borrowed a phone from a friend but it’s on low power, can you message me back on my new number xx’ with the new number attached. Naturally I messaged back, in a bit of a panic and worried, and the conversation basically went on to ask for a large sum of money. There were couple of red flags, including some of the language in the message my daughter would never use - and as a EngLit student she is fastidious with her grammar and punctuation, it just didn’t seem like her. I was worried so I FaceTimed her on her usual number and of course she was fine, she hadn’t smashed her phone, and didn’t need any money or have a problem with the bank. I’ve attached screen shots of the text conversation and now blocked both numbers, but it did seem feasible especially as I had just dropped her off at her university over the weekend, posted on FB as many parents do, and I know she is paying out large sums of money for her accommodation etc at the moment - I can’t believe I just about fell for it, and just wanted to warn others who may receive similar messages! I feel like a bit of a fool for just about falling for it, but not as foolish as i would be to have actually fallen for it…

Nothing to do with it - for once! I get this message every few months. I have no children, so am not posting about settling them in to uni 😏

It’s good to warn people OP. These scammers rely on catching you in a moment of weakness. I almost fell for one which again just happened to line up with life - I had just had a couple of direct debits not go through on my account and sorted them out, that afternoon got a text saying my payment for my TV license hadn’t gone through, I knew that my annual payment for that was about due. Luckily I double checked by logging in directly, because I always do, but I had believed it until it was obvious that it was a scam. Just a coincidentally well timed one - and they can send so many thousand in a day that coincidences are inevitable.

What was the point of that post exactly? Did calling someone an idiot make you feel big and clever?

It's been going for years. I had one recently. My kids have never ever started a message with "hi mum" in their lives.

MIL almost sent 1k because of this scam. Her DD lives overseas, she is in her 80’s and is having a few memory issues, her DD is pretty flakey and has asked for money before in reality so it was believable and she had been having issues with her phone. Fortunately she was staying with us and mentioned it so we actually rang SIL.

Many people are vulnerable it’s all very well judging from a position of being intelligent enough and also being compus mentis enough to not fall for it. MIL is a very intelligent woman, was a teacher and speaks three languages but her mental faculties are not as they were.