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The scam targeting Australian women by preying 'on a mother's love'
Liz Lawson was one of more than 1000 Australians caught up in a new messaging scam nicknamed “Hi Mum,” in which scammers pretend to be children in need of financial help.
Published 27 September 2022 10:17am
By Francesca De Nuccio
Source: SBS
Image: Liz Lawson was the victim of a phone scam.
Key Points
- Liz Lawson was one of more than 1000 Australians caught up in a new messaging scam nicknamed “Hi Mum,”
- Scammers pretend to be children in need of financial help.
When Liz Lawson awoke to a message from her daughter early one Saturday morning, she didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary.
The Perth woman’s daughter was working in the US, and because of the time difference, receiving a message overnight was completely normal.
But this message wasn’t from her daughter’s number.
And this person wasn’t her daughter.
“It was a lengthy distressed message claiming she had dropped her phone in the toilet and it no longer worked because of water damage so she said she had borrowed a phone and got a new SIM card,” the 53-year-old said.
The WhatsApp message received by Liz Lawson from who she believed to be her daughter.
“The most distressing part was I got a message saying: ‘I’ve lost all my photos and videos,’ which made me immediately feel like I was talking to my daughter because she works as a photographer,” Ms Lawson said.
“It was also very convincing because she’s been working on a boat, she’s lost and damaged her phone before, particularly water damage, and she’s asked me to make payments for her before, quite recently when she was buying new camera equipment.”
Through the back and forth, the scammer attempted a phone call.
“I asked her to give me a call as we always do and when I answered the phone there was a very strange loud noise signal in the background that I couldn't quite make out, and I was really rushing around that morning so I’m thinking ‘is it my signal? Is it hers?’” she said.
“But I thought, well she’s in the middle of the sea, this happens all the time that we often can’t talk.
“So, every time you would normally question something, I thought 'no this is normal, this has happened before.’”
It was all part of the scheme.
The requests for money
“I get a message saying there is something she needs to ask me, but she didn’t know how to ask it,” Ms Lawson said.
“And I am probably what would be described as a care bear, I am a very nurturing mum, so I explain to her that she’s my daughter and there is nothing I won’t do to help her.”
The scammer told the mum of two there were two payments that needed to be made but their bank account was ‘frozen’ for 48 hours because of the changed phone number.
The first request came through for $3,744.20 which Liz paid to an account Liz’s daughter said was her friend’s.
Less than 10 minutes later, a second request came through.
Liz Lawson's daughter was travelling overseas when she was targeted by the "Hi Mum" scam.
Only thirty minutes later, Ms Lawson received a request for the third and final amount.
“This payment came to $3288, and she promised this was the last payment and she wouldn’t ask for anymore and every payment went to the same account but with a different reference number,” she said.
“The scam cost me just under $10,000 all up.”
‘Felt like someone had punched me in the stomach’
The day she was scammed, Liz was at the hairdressers with her younger daughter when alarm bells started to ring.
“At that exact minute that I pressed send for the last amount to go through my younger daughter leaned over and asked me what I was doing,” Ms Lawson said.
“She said to me: ‘Mum stop, something is wrong here. There is something about the emojis that doesn’t seem like her.’”
“So, I looked down and I asked her ‘do you think this is a scam?’ and she said, ‘yes mum, I do.’”
Every time you would normally question something, I thought ‘no this is normal, this has happened before.’Liz Lawson
The realisation was too much to bear.
“I can’t even begin to describe the feeling at that moment. I literally felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. To prey on a mother’s love is the cruellest thing a person can do,” Liz said through tears.
“I had been very distressed for the week running up to this because my parents are extremely unwell, my mum has been put into a home for dementia and my dad had been hospitalised.”
“I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I normally would have done.”
When Ms Lawson told her daughter what had happened, her response was touching.
“She basically told me it wasn’t my fault, and I was only trying to help her, and she said ‘mum, if your worst crime is loving us, then that’s it,’” Liz said emotionally.
“Hi Mum” scam targeting older Australian women
Ms Lawson is one of a growing number of victims in Australia who have fallen victim to the so-called “Hi Mum” scam, with total reported losses amounting to almost $3 million over the first seven months of this year, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Victims are contacted, most often through WhatsApp, by a scammer posing as a family member or friend. The messages usually start with “Hi Mum” and then the scammer will continue to message, claiming they have lost or damaged their phone and are making contact from a new number.
Once they have developed a rapport with their target, the imposter will ask for personal information or money to help urgently make a payment.
Another claim could be that children living or travelling overseas say they need emergency funds because they are in trouble.
To prey on a mother’s love is the cruellest thing a person can doLiz Lawson
Deputy chair of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), Delia Rickard, says the “unscrupulous” scammers seem to be targeting older Australian women.
“Over two-thirds of family impersonation scams have been reported by women over 55 years of age, accounting for more than $1.4 million in losses,” Ms Rickard said.
“It’s designed to pull your heartstrings.”
How to protect against scammers
The ACCC says it’s urging people who receive suspicious messages from a number they don’t recognise, to independently verify the contact.
If you are contacted by someone claiming to be a person you know, call them on the number already stored in your phone. If they pick up, you know the other person contacting you is trying to scam you.
“If you are unable to make contact, you should try a secondary contact method to verify who you are speaking to. If you still can’t make contact, consider asking a personal question a scammer couldn’t know the answer to,” Ms Rickard said.
“Never send money without being absolutely sure who you are sending it to.”
Australians lost $2 billion to scams in 2021.
The report compiled data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks, and other government agencies totalling $1.8 billion, but as one-third of victims do not report scams, the ACCC estimates actual losses were well over $2 billion.
85 per cent of online frauds originate in India
Globally, online scams like the one that trapped Liz, affect three out of five consumers.
A 2017 study of technical support scams published at the Network and Distributed System Security symposium found that 85 per cent of scams can be traced to India. They are conducted by scammers like Leo* who has been performing online scams for seven years.
Leo says his family and friends don’t know what he does, all they know is that he works in an IT sector.
“It’s all about making money,” he said.
Leo* has been a scammer for seven years.
So, scamming is lucrative, but the price is often paid by vulnerable, older people.
“You can make money, which is good enough for a month in a night. Sometimes money which is good enough for a year, you can make in a night,” Leo said.
"People look for those who are above 55. Why? Because they are dumb? No. They are gullible, they are lonely.”
“They don’t have kids. Who will they ask?”
One of the reasons these groups are so hard to stop is because in India, there are no laws criminalising fraud when the financial transactions happen abroad.
Retrieving money from a scam
As for Liz, relying on the police and the bank is her only hope.
Ms Lawson said she called ANZ bank straight away but was put on hold for almost four hours to speak to someone before she was told the scam department did not work on weekends and to call back on Monday.
She also tried another Australian bank, where she believed she had transferred the money, but it also could not help.
She reported the scam to WA police and even tried calling the scammer, which only led to a disconnected voicemail.
“I just asked them [ANZ] to please stop the money leaving the account, it was a pay ID, so I thought surely there was a 24-hour window before the money is transferred,” Liz said.
“I felt this great helplessness when I realised that the money is sitting there and there is a chance to stop it. It does feel like I can only rely on myself because I feel extremely let down by my bank who I have been loyal to for 15 years and nothing has been done about it.
“I feel they’ve washed their hands of it very quickly.”
Liz Lawson at home in Perth.
“It’s put us $20,000 in debt, my husband and I already work full time. We can’t do much more,” Ms Lawson said.
SBS contacted ANZ for comment, explaining Liz’s situation. The same day, Liz had just touched down in Edinburgh to visit her sick parents when SBS received this message from her.
“I’ve just had a call from ANZ to say they will be refunding the full amount scammed! I am beside myself with joy,” she said.
An ANZ spokesperson told SBS there is a Digital Detection Team operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to protect customers from fraud and scams.
“We apologise that our customer was not connected with this service in this instance,” they said.
*Not his real name.
