“Hi Mom, this is my new number”: how the family text scam works

A text arrives from a number you don’t know: “Hi Mom, I dropped my phone, this is my new number.” Sometimes it says “Hi Dad” or doesn’t use a name at all. After a little back-and-forth, a request appears. They need money for a phone repair, a bill or an emergency, usually right away, and usually by Zelle, a bank transfer or gift cards.

There’s almost always a reason they can’t talk on the phone: the new phone’s microphone is broken, they’re at work, or they’re somewhere loud.

Scammers send the same message to huge numbers of people. They don’t need to know your child’s name; they only need a parent who happens to have a child old enough to have their own phone. Concern does the rest. The urgency and the “can’t call” excuse are there to stop you from checking.

Call or text your family member on the number you already have saved for them, not the new one. If you can’t reach them, contact another relative or a friend who would know. You can also ask a question only the real person could answer.

Many families agree on a code word for real emergencies. It takes a minute to set up and makes this scam easy to shut down.

Zelle and bank transfers move money almost instantly and are hard to reverse. Gift cards are worse: the FTC says anyone who demands payment by gift card is always a scammer. A real family member can wait the few minutes it takes to confirm.

Contact your bank or payment app immediately and report the transfer as fraud. If you paid with gift cards, report it to the company that issued the cards right away. Then report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Forward the text to 7726 (SPAM), block the number, and report it on ContactCheckup so others who look it up see the warning.