It is the message every parent never wants to receive; their children are in desperate financial straits and have come to the Bank of Mum and Dad for an emergency bail out. Most parents will always answer this cry for help, and will simply do what their child needs to help them out of their sticky predicament.

But what if the person on the other end of the message isn’t your nearest and dearest, and is instead an opportunistic fraudster, exploiting the close bond between families for their own financial gain, having money transferred into their bank accounts under the guise of a bill needing to be paid.

Santander reported a 532% surge in scams of this nature between August and November last year, whilst data from Action Fraud revealed that over £50,000 was lost to this scam in just two months last year. In some cases, victims were reported to have lost as much as £3,000 each.

This trend is one that is likely to continue over the years, with so much personal information easily available to scammers to help them personalise their messages, increasing their chances of success.

Our investigations manager Jane Carey listed a few key points to prevent you falling victim to this scam: “If you are in any doubt at all, call the person you think you are sending money to. A quick 30 second phone call could save you hundreds, if not thousands of pounds. Once the money is gone it is hard to recover, so always second guess any transfers you make.”

If you have received what you believe to be a fraudulent message, or even if you have sent money to a scammer, reach out to our Investigations Manager, Jane Carey for a no obligation chat to see how Conflict International can help.