“It was a lengthy distressed message claiming she had dropped her phone in the toilet and it no longer worked because of water damage so she said she had borrowed a phone and got a new SIM card,” the 53-year-old said.
The WhatsApp message received by Liz Lawson from who she believed to be her daughter.
The convincing conversation continued with Liz trying to help her daughter, suggesting ways she could fix the water damage.
“It was also very convincing because she’s been working on a boat, she’s lost and damaged her phone before, particularly water damage, and she’s asked me to make payments for her before, quite recently when she was buying new camera equipment.”
It was all part of the scheme.
The requests for money
Less than 10 minutes later, a second request came through.
Liz Lawson’s daughter was travelling overseas when she was targeted by the “Hi Mum” scam.
“This time she asked for $2,861 and I explained that we didn’t have that amount to give in our savings account so I asked if I could take the money from her savings account and she agreed,” Ms Lawson said.
“The scam cost me just under $10,000 all up.”
‘Felt like someone had punched me in the stomach’
“So, I looked down and I asked her ‘do you think this is a scam?’ and she said, ‘yes mum, I do.’”
Every time you would normally question something, I thought ‘no this is normal, this has happened before.’
Liz Lawson
“She basically told me it wasn’t my fault, and I was only trying to help her, and she said ‘mum, if your worst crime is loving us, then that’s it,’” Liz said emotionally.
“Hi Mum” scam targeting older Australian women
Another claim could be that children living or travelling overseas say they need emergency funds because they are in trouble.
To prey on a mother’s love is the cruellest thing a person can do
Liz Lawson
“It’s designed to pull your heartstrings.”
How to protect against scammers
“Never send money without being absolutely sure who you are sending it to.”
Australians lost $2 billion to scams in 2021.
According to the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams report, in 2021 Australians lost a record amount of more than $2 billion to scams including investment ($701 million), payment redirection ($227 million) and romance scams ($142 million) and a range of others.
The report compiled data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks, and other government agencies totalling $1.8 billion, but as one-third of victims do not report scams, the ACCC estimates actual losses were well over $2 billion.
85 per cent of online frauds originate in India
“It’s all about making money,” he said.
Leo* has been a scammer for seven years.
In India, the average monthly wage for a salaried worker is around $250 a month.
One of the reasons these groups are so hard to stop is because in India, there are no laws criminalising fraud when the financial transactions happen abroad.
Retrieving money from a scam
“I feel they’ve washed their hands of it very quickly.”
Liz Lawson at home in Perth.
Already in debt, this scam added to her burden.
*Not his real name.