S
Sean Camara
Guest
New Scam Alert: Couple's 'son' tricks them into giving him $4000 - then their REAL son calls!
Scams are on the rise, and it's becoming more and more difficult to tell what's real and what's not.
A Melbourne couple has narrowly avoided getting scammed out of thousands of dollars after a fraudster convinced them that their son needed financial help to pay the bills.
Sam Peluso and his wife recalled the incident when they almost transferred over $4,000 to a scammer who posed as their son, saying that the details in the fraudster's story perfectly matched their son's schtick.
Mrs Peluso shared that she was home alone last month when she received a phone call from her 'son' who told her that he had a new phone number, claiming that he had to change his phone after he dropped his previous device down the toilet.
Knowing her son, the mum said that she did not give it much thought because her son had previously dropped a phone down the drain.
She said: 'The fact that he dropped his phone in the toilet sort of convinced us that it might have been him. That’s his sort of style.'
The 'son' then requested $4095 from the couple to assist him with some of his bills.
'(My wife) got back to him and asked him, "well how do we pay this money and where do we pay to?"' Sam recalled.
The new ‘mum-and-dad’ scam is currently on the rise, victimising unsuspecting Australians across the country. Credit: Shutterstock/Speedkingz.
The person on the other line was said to provide Mrs Peluso with an account number and a Bankwest BSB.
Fortunately, the mum contacted Sam before sending any money to their 'son'.
Sam told his wife to not transfer any funds until he got home.
The couple also claimed that they tried to contact their real son for confirmation, but were unsuccessful.
'We thought it was our son. We weren’t too sure,' Sam said.’
It was at this point that the couple became more suspicious of the caller, leading to them asking the person behind the line to provide further details such as the name on the bank account they sent.
'I said (to my wife) tell this guy that the bank wants bank details and the name of the account,' Sam said.
'He came back with the bank name and a girl’s name - Michelle.'
The Pelusos also noticed that the scammer became aggressive when they confronted them, claiming that they felt harassed as the scammer forced them to make the transfer.
The couple heard from their son, who advised them to submit the messages to authorities, while they continued to communicate with the fraudster via SMS.
'We were thinking maybe it’s somebody that knows him because what surprised me is that the text came through from a mobile number,' Sam admitted.
'Usually, it’s either a private number or something you can’t trace too easily.'
'My wife almost believed it.'
Credit: Twitter/@Scamwatch_gov
The ‘mum and dad scam,’ which the Pelusos nearly fell for, is getting more and more common.
We previously reported a similar case where a fraudster tricked an unsuspecting father into thinking that they were his son so he could 'help out' with the payment of some 'unsettled bills'.
According to Scamwatch, parents should be wary of messages with this template: 'Hi mum, my other phone crashed. But this is my temporary phone. You can save this one. Message me if you’ve seen this.'
Typically, scammers would claim that they do not have access to their banking accounts due to the damaged phone so they would be needing some financial support from their parents (the victims) so they can pay for their debts.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said that it has received over 460 reports related to the scheme, with a third of the reported cases claiming that the victims have lost over $2 million.
In case you receive a text that bears a similar message to the template provided above, the ACCC advises to 'message the original number or social media profile of the contact person to confirm that they have lost their phone or changed profile'.
'If you’re unable to make contact with their original phone number or profile, verify that new communications of this sort are legitimate via a second factor, such as email if a text message comes through,' an ACCC spokesperson recommended.
With so many people looking to take advantage of others, it's important to be aware of the different types of scams out there and how to avoid them. We recommend checking out the Scam Watch section of the SDC website to stay on top of these schemes so you can properly equip yourself with knowledge on how you can avoid falling victim to them.
Stay safe out there, folks!
.png){kind=icon}
these parasites 
