Among the numerous telephone scams, like those of foreign prefixes or fake advantageous offers, there is one in particular that does not focus so much on technological tricks, but on the emotionality of the victim. This is the scam known for the phrase “Mom, I lost my phone” which it usually begins with, with variations such as “This is my new number”. If you receive a message like this, be careful because it could only be one scam to get money sent. In fact, criminals first send a message to the victim’s number posing as your son or daughter of the victim and declare that they have lost or broken the phone, which is why the number from which the message comes is not the original one of the victim’s real son/daughter. At that point, if he comes gained the trust of the victimthey pretend to be in difficulty and ask for money.
In this article we will see how the scam works and what to do to avoid it.
What is the WhatsApp scam of the fake son who lost his phone
“Mom, I lost my phone. This is my new number”. Behind this seemingly harmless message lies one of the most insidious scams of 2024, which continues this year too. Those who don’t have children immediately understand that it’s a scam, or at most they can think of someone who has the wrong number. But the same is not true for a mother who receives such a message. This type of scam, in fact, It leverages the emotionality of the victim who, if she takes the bait, will most likely be willing to send a sum of money to what she believes to be her son or daughter to allow him or her to buy a new phone.
Clearly the scammers do not know if the person to whom the message is sent is actually a parent, but as happens with many scams, the same message is sent to a multitude of telephone numbers among which, statistically, there will be some mother or father .
This type of scam resembles the so-called “dear nephew” scama phone scam that specifically targets elderly people. The scammer usually pretends to be a Friend of Grandchild of the victim, who is ill and needs financial help from his grandfather or grandmother. It can also happen that criminals pose as carabinieri or policemen and ask victims for one sum of money to settle a crime performed by his nephew.
But how do scammers leverage the emotions of the victim? Let’s see it with an example.
How the lost phone scam works
To explain the mechanism of this scam, we will use a example happened to the author of this article, or rather to my mother.
It happened recently that my mother called me on my usual number and, when I answered, she said she was surprised “Ah, but then your phone still works!”. It quickly became clear to me that someone was trying to scam her, so I told her to stop contacting anyone who was texting her from an unknown number. However, I asked her to forward me screenshots of the conversations. Let’s look at them together to retrace the scam.
The broken or lost phone
The scammer initially contacts the victim by calling them “Mom”in this way he does not declare his own name – that is, the name of his son or daughter – which he clearly does not know! As you can see from the image below, my worried mother responds promptly, providing unknowingly to the scammer the right name to usethat is, the name of his children.
The trigger of an emotional reaction
Once we get the name of the victim’s daughter – in this case, me – the conversation moves on WhatsApp and the scammer increases the worry of the mother explaining what happened, and confirming the own identity as you can see in the conversation below.
The request for money
Sure you got it trust of the victim, the scammer asks for a favor to his mother, that is, to lend him money since his bank account has been blocked. He also gives the victim instructions on how to do one PostePay top-up on your account, and summarily justifies the possibility of calling.
Fortunately, the victim in question – that is, my mother – had a moment of hesitation, having become suspicious, and called me on my original number, finding that no phone had been lost and that someone was actually trying to scam her.
How to protect yourself from the scam of a fake son or dear nephew
It may seem trivial as a warning, but the only thing to do in cases like this is: verify the sender’s identity by any means possible. In the example above, a phone call to the original phone number was enough to realize the scam, and it is in all respects the best solution. It is therefore important to never trust messages or calls from unknown numbers and never provide your details to these contacts.
