“Dropped my phone in the toilet” scam comes to Mississauga and Brampton

A new Whatsapp scam is circulating Mississauga and Brampton this week and it may leave some parents feeling ‘flushed’ and out of thousands of dollars.

Those who communicate with their kids through text might want to keep their eyes peeled for this scam targeting parents.

The recipient will receive a message from an unknown number that claims to be their child and alerting the parent that they have somehow dropped their phone in the toilet causing it to break.

The message follows with a sense of urgency to contact them on a different messaging platform— in this case it’s ‘Whatsapp’ and number is also provided.

For skeptics, they may be able to figure out that they are being lured into a phishing scam as the original texting number and the Whatsapp number do not match.

However, for some parents this kind of message may test their vulnerability and induce concerns for their child’s safety and well-being, causing them to fall right into the scammers trap.

Although WhatsApp has set up several features like two-factor authentication to protect the privacy of their users and prevent accounts being hacked —scammers can still find ways around.

In this situation a scammer is using a text to get the recipient to add them to their contact list in WhatsApp, where they may then ask the parent to share personal information or ask for money.

WhatsApp suggests to its users that if they receive messages from a number they do not recognize to simply not respond and block them.

Peel Regional Police also advise residents that with the increase of social media and text scams it is important to not share any personal information including credit card numbers or pins, and social insurance numbers (SIN) to anyone over the phone.