The new WhatsApp scam from 'The son in trouble': "Mom, my phone is broken, I need a transfer"

• ANA MARIA ORTIZ

  @anamaortiz

  Madrid

Updated Friday, April 15, 2022-01:51

• Share on Facebook

• Share on Twitter

• send by email

Comment

María

, a 65-year-old from Madrid, took the bait.

"Hi mom. My other phone is broken. This is my new number that you can save. Are you home?"

She did not doubt that the person who, on March 7, sent her this WhatsApp from a mobile that she did not know was indeed her son,

De Ella.

They exchanged several messages in which the alleged son explained that his phone had broken down and that he had a financial problem, that he needed a transfer.

"He missed him, but some time ago I had been in financial trouble and had asked him for money, so he thought it was true, that it was me," Javier tells how the scammers managed to confuse his mother.

The woman was saved because she did not have the keys to make the bank transfer online.

"Call your sister, who is the one who has the keys and makes the transfers," she replied to the impostor, ready to pay.

"No, you call her, I'm with the technician. Call her now, hurry up," the scammer urged her.

And so did Maria.

She wrote to her daughter asking him to pay Javier the amount that he was supposedly asking for in the account number that the scammer had provided.

She did not give her daughter more details, she did not explain that Javier had asked for her money from an unknown phone number.

"It was 1,150.27 euros by immediate transfer, which apparently you can't cancel," explains Javier.

"But my sister, before sending the money, she wrote me a message. 'Listen, now I'll make the transfer'. 'What transfer?'"

This is how María escaped at the last moment from entering the list of scammed mothers through the WhatsApp scam known as 'The son in trouble' and about which the Police have recently issued an alert due to the increase in the number of cases.

The scam, which has been circulating in South American countries for years, has now jumped to Spain.

It is a mystery how scammers manage to discriminate phone numbers that actually belong to mothers with young children.

"Scammers contact women and trick them by posing as their children to

urgently request money

in order to deal with an immediate problem.

To achieve deception, they allege that they cannot communicate directly with their usual telephone due to alleged problems with their terminal and that they cannot receive calls," explained in a press release on April 4, the

which continues to collect complaints and investigating the cases.

"Finally, when the transaction has already been carried out and the injured parties manage to really talk to their children, they realize that they have been victims of a deception and they can no longer cancel the transfer. In recent weeks, various scams have been detected in different points in the country with which criminals have managed to defraud amounts ranging between 2,000 and 26,000 euros".

The case of

, a 63-year-old Canary Islander, is practically identical.

The same phone number and the same message to address her.

She and her husband,

, live in

(Gran Canaria) and her son,

, 35 years old, 50 kilometers away, in

.

When the son calls them to let them know that we are going to get in touch with them, they joke about the identity theft of which they were about to be victims: "Let's see, what year and month were you born? It's to find out if we are talking to you or to a stranger.

"It's that he caught us so off guard... We have only one son and he no longer lives with us. If we had several, he wouldn't have caught us like this because we would have asked which son," says Esperanza.

She was asked, according to her husband, Pedro, for 1,688.33 euros, and, since it was in the afternoon and the banks were closed, the scammer suggested that they send the amount by bizum.

"That she make a bizum or something like that, she told me, but I don't even understand that bizum thing. If I'm one of those who use those bizum I send her the bizum," says Esperanza.

Although he deleted part of the conversation, he retains enough to understand how the plot operates.

The impersonator writes messages and she answers him with audios.

-Hi Mom.

My other phone is broken.

This is my new number that you can save.

Are you at home?

-Yes, I'm at home, but,

, did your other phone break?

Friend, well yes I am here at home yes.

Let's see, tell me to see what happened.

-I dropped the phone and the touch screen of my phone is not working.

I am using an old phone.

It is difficult to communicate with me since it is very old and does not accept any SIM.

-OK OK.

And if you call me, instead of writing you call me?

You don't know the phone now, mine?

I think so.

OK then.

Let's see, give me your number again because I went to record you and it was deleted before you put the second message.

Give me that number again.

That reflects me here... Tell me if it is this: 611...

-Voucher.

Luckily I am insured, only

I have a problem, could you help me?

-Tell me what you need, tell me, because now I don't understand you.

Tell me tell me tell me.

And give me the phone, that the phone is this, which now I no longer recorded, but I'm seeing you: 611 23 27 50.

-I have borrowed this phone until my phone is repaired.

The microphone and camera do not work.

I can only use whatsapp.

I have to transfer three payments before 11pm, but because my phone is broken I can't access my files.

Can you transfer it to me and I'll return it to you tomorrow?

-And how can I transfer you?

We don't know how to do that.

Come

, you're not working, come

and fix things, you're not on another island, it takes you only an hour to come here, and you leave tomorrow.

What do you want me to tell you?

I don't understand this.

I'm going to take note of that phone to see.

And you always have two phones in your hand and now you had to borrow one, okay.

Okay, okay, you tell me, explain to me, let's see what those three payments are, let's see what three payments they are, if they are for little money, if it is for a lot of money....

-You can go to the bank tomorrow.

-Explain to me that your father is also here, and the sandwich is going to make him sick, explain to me, let's see what you want, what I'll transfer to you.

I'm not going to go to the bank to do that, I don't know how to do it, okay?

Tell me what you need and if you don't explain something else to me or explain something else to us, because dad is calling you on the phone that you just gave me, that you gave me "take a note", eh, I take a note and you don't answer, okay?

Dad is calling you on the phone that reflects, which you gave me now, 611 23 27 50.

-I bought a laptop and a phone.

I send you the payment information.

It is at this moment that the couple comes up with the idea of ​​dialing their son's usual phone, the one he had before the alleged breakup.

"And my son told us: "My phone hasn't broken, hang up, hang up that number and block it, that these are scams," concludes Esperanza.

"When you tell a mother that something is wrong with her son, she worries and doesn't think, that's where the scam is, where the hitch is," says the son.

"Later I explained to my mother: 'If something like that happens to me and I can't go home, I'll call you, I'll talk to you, you're going to hear my voice.' In case it happens again."

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Bizum

• WhatsApp

• National Police

• events

• Delinquency

• HBPR