Arnaque! “Coucou Maman”

One to watch out for if you’ve got French speaking kids!

First flagged up at the end of 2022, this scam is still very much doing the rounds! Here, the scammers send a fake text message, pretending to be the recipient’s child.

Claiming they have broken/lost/ had stolen their phone (which, let’s face it, is not a rare occurence), they say they’re contacting you from a friend’s phone and ask you to reply to this new number. Once contact is established, they then ask for money to top up/fix/replace their phone.

Chat with your kids and make sure you have a fool proof system in place for if their phone is out of order, never reply , and certainly never send money, to numbers you do not recognise.

If you think you have been contacted by or victim of a scammer, report it via the official government platform.