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An Australian mum fell victim to a sophisticated text message scam from someone claiming to be her daughter, who is currently overseas.
Nina Merrilees was one such victim after she received an urgent message from her “daughter” telling her she had broken her phone and needed money sent to a new number.
The scam is considered part of a growing trend in which criminals use artificial intelligence (AI) and voice cloning technology to mimic people’s voices, making it all the more difficult for unsuspecting victims to distinguish between genuine loved ones and scammers.
“She’s lived overseas for quite a few years and has lost her phone, broken her phone … so this was just normal to get a new number from her,” Ms Merrilees said in an interview.
The scammers used fraudulent payments to gain trust, sprinkling their messages with love heart emojis to maintain the illusion that it was indeed Ms Merrilees’ daughter who was messaging her.
“To get a message saying, ‘Hi Mum, my phone is broken, this is my new number’ – we’ve had quite a few of those over the years.”
Despite already being suspicious, she made three payments of $3450, $3800, and $4350 – totalling $11,600 before realising it was a fraudulent transaction.
By the time she realised what was happening, it was too late. She had already sent over $11,000 of her hard-earned money to help out her ‘daughter.’
Merrilees’ situation is just one example of how SMS scammers exploit unsuspecting Australians.
The federal government has warned that this scam is becoming more prevalent, with fraudsters increasingly able to imitate voices through AI.
Ms Merrilees’ experience is a stark reminder of how prevalent SMS scams are in Australia and how easily they can fool even the most cautious among us.
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