Random Whatsapp scam

Thank you for sharing this Mizuna, at least GNetters can be on their guard.
I have had a scam text from Evri this morning, again!
Some years ago my email account was hacked, most of my contacts received an email claiming "I had suffered an injury in an accident whilst on holiday, had lost my passport and all my money and clothes and could they send me some money via Western Union to help. me"!
My line manager and. close friends noticed the email almost immediately and knew instantly that it was a scam as I was at home in bed sleeping following a night shift. She swiftly got in touch with as many of my contacts as she could as they were mutual friends to stop anyone responding and left me a message for when I woke up alerting me to what had happened. Fortunately, no one in my contacts sent any money to 'bail me out'.

Sadly Mizuna many parents have been taken in by this scam. It’s actually known as the Dear Mum Scam.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dear-mum-whatsapp-scam-b1997205.html

Gosh thanks for the link, I can't believe I've never heard of it.

It’s worrying that people still don’t know about this scam despite so much publicity. It has been mentioned before on GN.

I think it's worrying that people don't talk to each other any more. Communication via a keyboard is a poor substitute. If I'd thought it was my child I would have rung them at the request for money stage...

Nevertheless, I'm glad you took the trouble to highlight this again for the rest of us, Mizuna.
It's all to easy to get mislead in the moment.
Also glad you didnt

MaizieD

I think it's worrying that people don't talk to each other any more. Communication via a keyboard is a poor substitute. If I'd thought it was my child I would have rung them at the request for money stage...

Beyond me ??‍♀️
It should be your first instinct.

Unfortunately a friend of mine fell for that scam. She sent money twice(!) before realising.. Luckily the bank did return the money.

There was quite a long thread on this on gransnet not so long ago. I myself was nearly caught out until I thought to ask for the name of her two brothers (scammer purporting to be my daughter)… obviously they couldn’t give me that information so were blocked and reported

Don't worry, of course I rang him straight away but he was asleep, unusually for him in the day, and couldn't be raised. To have added extra info would have made my post very long. I think it's a shame when something I had hoped might help others begins to raise criticism on Gransnet (but why should I be surprised at that). I talk to my kids all the time but Whatsapp is also a fun way of sharing info. Please don't jump to critical conclusions about others' lives.

I got the "Dear mum I've lost my phone" message last week, but it was easy to guess it was a scam because I don't have any children!

Thank you for highlighting it Mizuna. The reason that this works as a scam is because some people will be taken in, so the more warnings the better.

I had a scam like that a few months ago but instinctively I knew it wasn’t my daughter so I just deleted it. Heads up about any possible scam is always a good idea.

Mizuna

Don't worry, of course I rang him straight away but he was asleep, unusually for him in the day, and couldn't be raised. To have added extra info would have made my post very long. I think it's a shame when something I had hoped might help others begins to raise criticism on Gransnet (but why should I be surprised at that). I talk to my kids all the time but Whatsapp is also a fun way of sharing info. Please don't jump to critical conclusions about others' lives.

I'm not critical of you posting this, *Mizuna'. It's good to be reminded of it.

I'm just saddened that people fall for it because they don't talk to each other.

We got that message from my Son in Law when he was on a business trip to New York, so quite believable. However, we guessed it was a scam as he’d have contacted his own parents first and hadn’t. (He had their Company credit cards, so that would have been his first priority).
It’s easy to think we all know about these scams, but Juliet27’s friend didn’t and was caught out. Just shows, we still have to be vigilant.

Thanks for raising the alert Mizuna. I have heard if it being done, but there will be others who haven’t, so once again, thank you.
Sorry some posters were quick to judge you negatively (and incorrectly). I hope it won’t put you off posting again.

I got exactly the same message. In fact the message said after I asked who it was "I'm not in a good mood to talk right now". I knew it wasn't my son as he would never have said that and I replied to him in a very abusive way (too nasty to mention). My real son said that I shouldn't have replied because they use your number in future.

My husband had it - Hi dad. My sister and daughter have had it. Fortunately we had all heard about it.

Please everyone keep telling us about whatever scams are around. I'm registered via neighborhood watch with a central Police led agency that sends out scam alerts. We all need to be vigilant these days.

I’ve had 3 emails in recent days from a friend in the US. Or at least they appeared to be from her. Her name, exactly as I have it stored in my contact list, is in the “from” heading of the email. She would normally send a newsy email a couple of paragraphs in length. It struck me as odd that it was just a sentence saying here are some photos from the weekend, click on this link to see them. I hovered over her name and discovered it wasn’t her email address but a weird looking one consisting of random letters and numbers.

I didn’t click on the link and let her know that her email account had been hacked. I advised her to change her passwords and as a precaution I changed mine.

I’ve had the courier text one several times in recent weeks wanting me to click on the link to rearrange a missed delivery. By text, landline and email they really are doing their best to catch us with our guard down ?

09.04 - 21/08 Mizuna I read out this thread to someone "No good deed goes unpunished" was the retort.
I do hope people will keep posting about this subject, as I for one can be caught out on a bad day and threads like this remind me of that fact.

Yes, we do need to be warned about any scams that people find. Thank you to those who do warn us. It is so easy to be taken in.

I've had 3 emails recently purporting to come from friends (2 of them "from" the same friend). They had gone into my spam folder. When I checked the sender email addresses by hovering over them, none of them was anything like the proper addresses, so I didn't even think of opening them. Neither friend knew about it, but both said they would change their passwords. I would hope that if my contact list was used like that, that someone would tell me about it!

I've had a text today saying my apple account has been hacked, so could I re send the payment details ect.
Standard scam. I assume we all get them from time to time, but this is the first text scam I've received.
I dont have an apple account.