One mother caught a scammer in the act when she cleverly asked them a trick question, and their reaction is hilarious.
A new scam that has been doing the rounds is tricking parents into thinking their children are messaging them on WhatsApp, when it’s actually a scammer on the other end of the line.
The scam texts usually start by telling the parent that they have a new number after losing or breaking their phone.
They then ask the other person to delete their child’s old number.
If not recognised straight away, this sneaky scam could see many parents forking out money or personal information to what they think is their child - only for a criminal to receive it.
One mother recognised the signs of the scam when she was targeted, and decided to catch the culprit in the act.
Twitter user @444molls shared screenshots of the interaction with the caption: “My mum just came home and asked if my sister had sent me her new number.
“I was confused cause she hadn’t but then I remembered the scam going around.
“Told her to make up some random names and see if they fell for it and they did. Be careful please, they ask for money eventually.”
The screenshot of the messages show the interaction to start with her mother getting a text that said: “Hi mum, it’s me.
“This is my new number, my phone just broke. So you can delete that number and save this one,” the scam artist continued.
After her mam replied, the scammer said: “I lost all my files and images. I thought I saved everything on my iCloud but it hasn’t saved on.
“It’s been the worse [sic] day ever, haven’t been able to retrieve any of my files.
“This is my new sim.”
Noticing something was fishy, the mother asked: “Hang on.
“Is this Julie or Ben?”
To which they received the reply that it was “Julie”.
Mam then shoots the scammer down by saying, “That’s funny because I don’t have a daughter called Julie.”
Recognising they had been caught, the scammer hilariously just replied, “Are you joking”, which brought an end to their attempt to make some cash.
Many Twitter users thought the scammer’s reaction was priceless, with one saying: “It’s the ‘are you joking’ for me. Caught like a rat on the highway.”
“The ‘are you joking’ part killed me,” another said.
