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You will receive a WhatsApp message on your mobile phone. Your elderly mother’s name flashes on the screen. She’s out shopping, the message says, and left her bag at home.
Luckily she found an old debit card in her handbag…but there’s barely a penny in the account she’s linked to.
Could you wire her some money – to be paid back later that day, of course – to cover the cost of a few groceries and fueling the car?
New Threat: The ‘Son and Daughter Scam’ is a vicious new spin on the ‘Mother and Father Scam’ and involves scammers posing as elderly parents in dire need of money
It all sounds innocent enough, and many of us wouldn’t hesitate to call our bank or log into our mobile apps to make the payment right away.
But if you had taken the bait, you most likely would have fallen for the latest scam to sweep Britain.
Nicknamed the “son-and-daughter scam,” it’s a vicious new twist on a trust trick revealed by Money Mail over a year ago.
At the time, we revealed that parents were receiving WhatsApp messages – supposedly from their children – asking for money to cover an unexpected cash crunch. The message would say that the child had lost or broken their phone and was using a temporary number.
In fact, these scam texts from mom and dad were sent by devious crooks who then provided false bank details and made off with the money.
Now criminals are using a similar trick, except they pretend the messages are from elderly parents who use cell phones and may have trouble with technology.
Chris Ainsley, head of fraud risk management at Santander, told Money Mail: “As the mom and dad scam has become more known and less effective, fraudsters are reversing the scenario.
“The scam itself is more or less the same in nature. They pretend to be someone you know, knowing that you’re unlikely to give money to someone on the street, but if it’s family, you could. It’s treacherous.’
There has been an explosion of “family” scams over the past year.
Three in five impersonation frauds now claim to be from a family member, according to data from High Street bank TSB.
In contrast, only 13 percent of impersonation scams claim to come from your bank, 4 percent from the IRS, and 4 percent from online retail giant Amazon.
Cases where relatives are used as bait are responsible for 40 percent of all losses due to impersonation scams, says TSB.
Family ties: Three in five impersonation frauds now claim to be from a family member, according to data from the main bank TSB
Santander’s Chris Ainsley adds: ‘It’s all about familiarity. It’s clear they’re making you have a specific relationship with the one they’re mimicking.’
Son and daughter scams seen by Money Mail often say that a parent is in desperate need of money at the grocery store or gas station.
Sometimes the texts come from an unknown number, explaining, for example, that your elderly mother left her handbag at home – including her phone and wallet. She uses a friend’s phone while in the shops. Can you send this friend some money to cover her expenses?
In other cases, the message comes in as if it were from a real number stored in your phone for your mom or dad. This tactic is known as “number spoofing.”
Here, scammers use technology to trick your phone into displaying a name instead of an unknown number as the sender.
Many have already fallen for the deception, according to messages shared with Money Mail. A 51-year-old TSB customer handed over £711 after receiving a message from an unknown number claiming to be his father.
The concerned son made a bank transfer in response to the message to someone he believed to be his elderly father. It said, ‘Hello, Dad here on a new number – I hate to ask, but I could really use some money this week, can you send us some?’
Warning: There has been an explosion of “family” scams in the past year
And one victim attempted to transfer £390 after receiving a message, apparently from her stepmother, asking to borrow money.
In another example, a Santander employee received a message on WhatsApp, which appeared to be sent by ‘Mum’.
The text read: ‘I’m shopping and have the wrong card on me. Can you please send me £240? I’ll pay you back when I get home.’
The scammers provided a sort code and account number, hoping to trick victims into making an instant wire transfer.
In another spin on the scam, a 31-year-old received a message from a friend saying their father needed help paying his taxes and MOT. Wanting to help a friend in need, they sent £252 to the scammer.
Insiders fear the new spin on the mom-and-dad scam could trap an even greater number of victims.
More than half of people in Britain have already been targeted by impersonation scams, according to Santander, with the number of text message recipients rising by 77 per cent in the year to September 2022.
On average, victims lose £3,808 per scam.
Fraud by friends and family is one of the biggest fraud problems in banks, warns Paul Davis, director of fraud prevention at TSB.
“The more emotional the scam, the better for fraudsters,” he says.
“They will imitate any family member, including older relatives, if they feel it will increase their chances of exploiting your good intentions by stealing your money.”
Mr Ainsley added: ‘The real concern is that we don’t understand how they target people.
“We’re in the dark about where they’re getting the information from.
“Often they seem to have an idea of who they’re contacting, but they don’t have names.”
Jim Winters, director of economic crime at Nationwide, says fraudsters tend to send out a large number of messages in the hope that someone will identify with them.
He says: ‘The problem is that people who get these texts forget all the good advice and immediately think it’s their father, mother, son or daughter. Their first concern is for their family member.’
A spokesperson for WhatsApp says the company secures personal messages with end-to-end encryption, meaning no one but the sender and recipient can access those messages, not even WhatsApp.
“We recommend that if you receive a suspicious message (even if you think you know who it’s from), calling or requesting a voice memo is the quickest and easiest way to verify that someone is who they say they are.”
Before sending money, you should call your relative on the original number you have for them. If you can’t reach them, you can try calling the unknown number they’re texting you from, says Mr. Winters.
Fraudsters will usually find an excuse not to speak on the phone, so watch out for this red flag.
Above all, take your time. Fraudsters thrive on causing haste and panic.
j.beard@dailymail.co.uk
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