Text messages from family members who have supposedly lost their phone. 6 January at 8:04PM in Ask An Expert 4 replies 590 views

silvercar

Every few weeks I get a text, supposedly that one of my kids has lost their phone. My classic reply is to ask “which one of you now?” To which there is often the reply “the elder one”. I doubt anyone would reply with anything other than their name.

I know in the UK you are told to forward the message (or copy and paste) to 7726 (spells SCAM on older phones), but what do you do abroad? 

debitcardmayhem

silvercar said:

Every few weeks I get a text, supposedly that one of my kids has lost their phone. My classic reply is to ask “which one of you now?” To which there is often the reply “the elder one”. I doubt anyone would reply with anything other than their name.

I know in the UK you are told to forward the message (or copy and paste) to 7726 (spells SCAM on older phones), but what do you do abroad? 

Nobody likes a pedant, but here I am  it actually spells SPAM (scam is 7226)

RobM99

These fakes can often be detected by the syntax. I had a few "Whatsapp" allegedly from my daughter that started "Hey..." A term she never used.

Some of these are bot generated automatic replies so I just answer with rubbish!

MSE_Katie

Transcript of the video above:

A really common scam that's going around at the moment is for you to receive a WhatsApp message from your supposed children saying that they've lost their phone and they urgently need money. And a lot of people have transferred money to criminals this way. It's really quite worrying. First of all, take a breath. If you do have children, get in contact with your children or your family member that it's supposedly from, using the number that you already have for them, and just double check.

Secondly, this is really likely to be a scam. So just don't reply and forward the message to 7726. That tells your telecoms company that this is a scam and they try and block it from happening to anyone else. Now, why 7726? Because on old telephones that was how you spell out the word 'spam'. 

This Forumite has asked me a question about how they can do that if they're abroad. Now, 7726 is free in the UK, but when you're abroad you might come across extra charges for sending the message. So my suggestion is: wait until you get back to the UK before sending it. Alternatively, go online, open a chat with your telecoms provider and let them know that way.

I_Love_comps

I have had these too. They are a scam. I have had several. I text my DD to check