Smashed screen phone scam

Thanks for the tip-off I have one who is prone to drop things including her I pad on a tiled floor.

Yammy my children's surface of choice always seems to be a pavement or tiled floor, never a nice soft carpet where it might stand a chance 🙄

My granddaughter had a similar one . We were waiting to pick her up a quarter of a mile from school when we got the message that she had smashed her phone. Her brother said “not again “ as she has done it before.She said she was using her friend’s phone but as it only had 1% left could we WhatsApp the friend on a certain number.I am sorry to say we fell for it because it sounded plausible given the time and I panicked because it was getting dark.

None of my children use WhatsApp. We have all changed to Signal. Also they have very distinctive ways of writing and use a mixture of German and English which would be hard to replicate, but I would still be wary and watch out for scams, so thank you for the warning.

Here in Germany, it is less usual to be scammed. At the moment you often read of in the paper of old folks falling for scams over the land line, usually by people claiming to be their grandchildren. But more and more frequently, there are reports of would-be victims catching the scammers out.

I was surprised to read your thoughts on scamming in Germany, JackyB, as one of our German friends told me just recently about this scam.

amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/12/europol-phone-scam-defrauding-germans

I haven’t heard anything about this one over here, but perhaps we should all be forewarned.

I’ve had a couple of ‘Hi Mum’ ones recently.
Asking me to What’s App my none existent child

The 'Hi mum' scam is well known apparently. I had this come recently and fell for it, knowing one daughter might do such a thing. I did actually try contacting the number given but nothing came of it. They will then ask you to transfer money to them which of course is a no no.

You can check out any phone number that phones or texts you at this website. Also great for those annoying calls that hang up. Enter the number then scroll down for comments people have left and you can also leave a comment:
who-called.co.uk/

Chestnut a few months ago there was a You & Yours program on R4 which featured lots of woman who’d fallen for the ‘Hi Mum’ stuff.
It was clearly very lucrative for some absolute wrong ‘uns

I have just learned of an app. called truecaller which can be downloaded to your mobile for free. It not only has caller ID but will tell you if it’s a scammer. I’m thinking of trying it. Has anyone else got it?

I just enter the phone number into the website above but an app sounds good. I'm always amazed when people hand money over because that to me is a real red alert! Any mention of money and I'd be out. 😨