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Everything appeared alright when Pat spoke to her daughter over the phone on a Saturday morning. They said their goodbyes over a long video call during breakfast.
But when she got a text from an unknown number shortly after, something had gone wrong.
Patricia’s daughter accidentally dropped her phone in the toilet, losing access to all of her banking information. She was in a bind and needed cash right away to settle her bill by noon.
A scammer, not Patricia’s daughter, sent the messages.
The messages had personal details that made them more believable to Patricia, like referencing house renovations and her daughter’s stress levels.
“I felt like somebody heard our conversation on WhatsApp because of what she said after that,” Patricia explained.
The con artist instructed Patricia and John to make a payment for a new kitchen, stating that he would reimburse the cash by 9 p.m. The Perth couple sent $12,899.99 to an account with a central bank branch in Perth’s CBD under the guise of renovation payments.
The thief received the money and sent love hearts and appreciative emojis as thanks.
Not long after, they were back for more money.
By increasing his daily payment limit, John allowed himself to send more money–which unfortunately also alerted his bank to a possible fraud case. The couple realised they might have been scammed when John’s bank, Westpac, stopped their second payment of $10,278.99.
Westpac informed the couple that they had notified the other concerned bank but had recovered no funds from the initial payment.
“Hi Mum” is a scheme targeting Australians, and 1,150 people have fallen for it. The problem has only gotten worse in recent months.
“It just shows how easy it is for anyone to get scammed,” Patricia said. “I would say to people, please be careful. Just because somebody has all the information about you doesn’t mean they are who they say they are.”
Simon Smith, a cybercrime expert, claims that Australians are now dealing with fraud daily.
“It’s become like a way of life lately, and it’s gotten worse,” Mr Smith said. “More sophisticated scams exist; more social engineering is going on.”
According to Smith, the “Hi Mum” scam is just one of many that target Australians.
“A lot of different scams are targeting us at the moment, and I think the reason for that is because we’re an affluent country,” he said.
“We’re an easy target, and I think the scammers have just cottoned on to that.”
While some people are more likely to fall for scams, Smith says anyone can be a victim.
“I think we need just to be more alert and aware of what’s going on,” he said.
“The best thing to do is just hang up the phone, delete the email, or close down the web page.”
If you think you might have been a victim of this scam, or any other, contact your local police station. You can also report it to the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN).
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