Mobile phone scam?

inscrutable79

I had a phone call from my elderly mother last night who had received in the previous 45 minutes two text messages and about 12 phone calls to her mobile phone, from a number she did not recognise. She didn't answer the calls but the text messages shoke her up a little as they said something along the lines of "pick up the phone, you've stolen stolen my mobile and i want it back" and the second was similar also saying "i'll give you 30 quid for it, the phone ain't even worth that, i just want my numbers". I told her to switch it off for the evening (another call even came through as she was on her landline to me) and ignore them.

Obviously she was a bit upset and rang me to see if I had heard of this as some sort of scam. A bit of Googling did not reveal anything. Very few people have my mothers number, so what on earth is this all about? If someone had had their phone stolen they would know their own number and wouldn't ring the wrong number 12+ times. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

If anyone can help me put my mother's mind at rest when I ring her again later this evening, I would be very grateful.

456789

Maybe it was saved in someone else's phone wrongly or maybe as they very rarely need to phone themselves they dialled wrongly once and just pressed redial?

inscrutable79

I did think that, but to get it wrong when sending two text messages as well made me suspicious?

456789

Yeah that is an oddity but they could have still gotten the number to send from the contacts list or list of last dialled numbers

Maybe if she tells you which number is phoning her you could phone them?

prowla

Why not try going to the phone co's operator?