A son has been left furious after his elderly mum was almost fleeced out of £2,800 after receiving a "convincing" text scam.
Darren said the scammer texted his mum pretending to be him asking her to send money urgently.
The mum grew suspicious when the scammer refused to ring her, GrimsbyLive reported.
The text had come from an unknown number on October 18 and said: "Hi mum, I've got a new phone and number.
"You can delete my old one. Can you let me know if you've received this message? X".
The scammer then went on to say they were "stressed out" before claiming the bank had blocked their online banking for 48 hours because of them having a new phone number and that they have payments to make.
When asked how much money they needed, the con artist replied: "It's quite a large amount. It is £2800.
"If you're able to help me out I'll send over the payee's details. I can pay it back to you by tomorrow or the day after."
When the victim of the scam told who she thought was her son to "ring [her]", they wrote: "I'm on the phone with the bank right now I'll phone you when I'm finished ok but the payment is urgent can you do it in the meantime xx."
Darren told GrimsbyLive : "I got home and my wife said my mum was panicking a little bit and that she'd almost transferred me some money.
"She asked if it was me and I said: 'I don't know what you're talking about'.
"I spoke to my mum and I think at that point she'd cottoned on to it because over the years, I've tried to make her aware about these scams but she always falls for things and I say, 'Mum, stop doing it!' so I think she had cottoned on when the person told her not to ring them because they were on the phone to the bank, and it was the sheer amount of money that they requested that set the alarm bells ringing too."
Darren said he was proud of his mother that she realised the message was a scam in the nick of time but claims she told him if it was asking for a smaller amount of money, she would have sent it "without question".
He said: "It seems like it's a new thing and maybe slightly more elaborate. It was so coincidental because
"I did actually have a new phone, and they seemed to pick up on that. But I think it's something that people need to be aware of," he said.
"It would've made me so angry if she fell for it, and I'm worried because I know other people will fall for it. At this time of year with the cost of living crisis, it would make me so angry if I know someone fell for it. I'd be well cheesed off.
"It's not the time to be ripping people off, but I guess scammers don't really think like that."
According to Action Fraud, this type of scam was reported to them 1,235 times between February 3 and June 21 this year and has cost WhatsApp users £1.5million. To read more about the 'Friend in Need' scam click here.
