Hi mum scam: The one smart question that saved Sydney mum $5000 in text message con

A Sydney mother came within minutes of transferring $5,000 to a scammer posing as her son before a moment of quick thinking saved her.

The scammer recently asked 64-year-old Lisa (not her real name) via text for a whopping $8,900 at first, but the mother, believing it was her son Tim, said she could only pay $5,000.

But it was all part of an elaborate ‘hi mum’ scam that fooled thousands of Australians out of $7.2 million last year alone.

After a barrage of text messages from her alleged son, Lisa was ready to press send the $5,000 transfer, but decided at the last minute to ask a personal question to identify him.

What is your maternal grandfather’s name? she asked.

He later admitted that he heard a ‘little voice in his head’ that asked: ‘Is it really him?’

When she first received a text message from the person claiming to be her son, she didn’t care.

But it was part of the rampant ‘hi mom’ ploy, where cybercriminals pose as family members before exploiting the victim’s sympathies and asking for money.

‘Hi Mom. I have a new phone and number. You can delete my old one. Can you tell me if you received this message?’ she read

Once Lisa asked which of her two sons was texting her, the hacker had a name and claimed to be her eldest son, Tim.

In the following texts, the scammer claimed to be ‘stressed out’. After Lisa tried to comfort her son, they said they had banking problems before taking out an $8,900 loan.

‘I don’t want to bother you with that, but the bank blocked my online banking for 48 hours because of this new number. I have to make some payments, so that stresses me out,” the text read.

‘Can I ask you for some help maybe?’, to which Lisa replied, ‘Of course.’

He returned a text: ‘Can you help me by making a payment for me? It is quite a large amount. It’s $8900. If you can help me, I will send you the details of the beneficiaries. I can return it to you tomorrow or the day after.

Although the request was out of the question, Lisa assumed her son was reaching out as a “last resort.” At the time, her son had also recently purchased a home and was in the process of moving out.

“I haven’t heard from Tim in a while,” he said. ‘He had recently bought a house and was moving house.

“He was trying to get his kids into new schools, so when this text came out of nowhere, I thought it was a little weird, but I really wanted to help him.

“A move costs a lot and maybe you had to pay more stamp duty, so there was a bit of authenticity.”

The hacker claimed that the funds were to be transferred via an Osko online transfer. When Lisa tried to call Tim, the messenger said they were on the phone and couldn’t talk.

Lisa then agreed to use her credit card to wire the scammer $5,000. She was about to press send when she thought better of it and asked for the name of Tim’s maternal grandfather.

‘It was just a little voice that thought: ‘Is it really him?’ she said.

I felt really bad asking him the first time. I could feel myself cringing. When she didn’t respond the first time, I thought something was up because that should roll off the tongue.

Lisa estimates she spent about an hour texting the scammer, and while she’s glad she didn’t lose any money, she says the interaction left her feeling ‘violated’.

While she shared the texts in the hope that other people won’t fall victim to the same scam, she blocked the most intimate conversations between herself and the scammer as she tried to support her ‘son’ during the vulnerable exchange.

In fact, I had opened up. That’s why I wrote some things. I was telling him how much I loved him and how I was always there for him,” she said.

‘I was desperately trying to call my other son, trying to get some money for Tim. He says I called him eight times, but everything was fixed and dusted when he called.

‘I was thinking, ‘Why don’t you answer? Come on, we have to help Tim’. If she had answered, she would have said, ‘Mom, you’re being ripped off.

Reflecting on her near miss, Lisa said she really believed she was sending her son a message and was so relieved that she paused before transferring the money.

‘That is the message I would like to share. It is very important to request identification from any unknown sources that may be accessing your Internet accounts or text messages,” he said.

A Scamwatch spokesperson said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) received more than 9,700 reports of ‘Hello Mum’ scams in 2022, with total losses of nearly $7.2 million.

“Victims are contacted, most often via WhatsApp, by a scammer posing as a family member or friend,” the spokesperson said.

‘They will claim that they have lost or damaged their phone and that they are communicating from a new temporary number.

“The scammer will ask for personal information, such as money, to help pay an urgent bill or replace your phone.”

Such a new variant of the scam involves cybercriminals using an alphabetical tag/sender ID (where the message will appear as if it was sent by your ‘mom’ or ‘dad’).

The messages could say: ‘I’m at Woolworths and bought the wrong card with me.’ Can you send me $150? I’ll give it back to you when I get home”, followed by the BSB and someone’s account number.

Scamwatch warned: “Consumers who receive messages from a number they do not recognize should independently verify the contact by contacting the person purporting to be the messenger.”