New to Me Scam

[Spydaman]

Just had the following text supposedly from my daughter. Mrs Spydaman had the same text.
Hi mum, I've dropped my phone and it's shattered, the phone shop is saying it's not repairable, I need a favour! Can you Whatsapp me on this number please !
Mrs S replied to it and they wanted her bank details to buy a new phone. They went backwards and forwards a few times until she asked for the name of the cat and they gave up.

[LastPoster]

I had this one a few days ago. Utterly convincing.

Apart from I'm Dad not Mum and both my sons were upstairs at the time

[Freakuk]

Been around for a while and similar flavours, surprising how many people fall for it.

[Spare tyre]

My loved ones would think I was I’ll if I sent a message that long!

[Countdown]

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/notorious-hi-...

[sc0tt]

My sister got this last week, replied with, “are you the 6 year old, the4 year old or the 1 year old?”

[Eric Mc]

Not that new a scam technique. It can be a lot worse though as the sender might also claim that they are being threatened in some way in order to frighten the recipient of the message into paying money.

[paul.deitch]

Happening a lot in Germany too together with the "Schock Anrufe" where "the prosecutor" in typically "Brussels" calls you to tell you that "your child" has run over and killed someone and that for only 20k they will be released on bail. Then they put "your child" on the line who cries and wails for you to help them. We've had two shock calls and several "lost my phone" calls. Some of our friends have too. Recently a lady here paid 350k, yes you read it correctly to get her child "out of prison".

We're actively working with the local police on a campaign to make people more aware. Got a photo shoot on 10th Jan in a couple of locations. They're going to pick us up and I've requested a striped car so that the neighbours have something to talk about. There's talk about us doing an interview on Westdeutsche Rundfunk TV as well!

Oh and according to the police the lady who handed over the 350k is not doing well. She gave away the kids inheritance, is now in a psychiatric clinic and her husband is divorcing her. A terrible outcome for everyone.