THE SCAM A text arrives from an unknown number: "Hi Mom, I lost my phone. This is my new number." Nothing bad happens next. You reply, they reply, the chat feels completely normal. That's the point. The request only comes after a while, once you're no longer talking to a stranger — you're talking to your kid. Then the ask: money for an urgent bill, a contractor, a replacement phone. And conveniently, the lost phone explains why they can't use their own banking app right now. One small story covers the new number, the missing bank app, and the hurry.

THE RED FLAG The whole trick runs on ten minutes of panic. A national cyber safety charity says reports about the "Hi Mum" scam rose by roughly a third in a single year. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center warns that scammers now fake a loved one's voice too, so even "it sounds like my kid" is no longer a safe check. And the tell is always the hurry: the bill is due today, the money has to move now, before anyone has time to pick up the phone and check.

THE RULE Never send money because a new number asked. Pause, ignore the message, and call your kid on the number you already have saved in your phone. If they pick up, the scam is over in seconds. If they don't, keep trying — no real emergency disappears because you took two minutes to verify. And borrow the FBI's best tip: make a secret code word with your family. If the person on the other end can't say it, the conversation is over.

Read it on the site: https://erawaeb.com/digest/daily/032-the-hi-mom-i-lost-my-phone-text/

One scam. One red flag. One rule. Every day. — ERAWAEB