Watch the documentary ‘Catching Scammers’ at 9.30pm Tuesday 27 September on SBS or stream via
When Liz Lawson awoke to a message from her daughter early one Saturday morning, she didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary.
The Perth woman’s daughter was working in the US, and because of the time difference, receiving a message overnight was completely normal.
But this message wasn’t from her daughter’s number.
And this person wasn’t her daughter.
“It was a lengthy distressed message claiming she had dropped her phone in the toilet and it no longer worked because of water damage so she said she had borrowed a phone and got a new SIM card,” the 53-year-old said.
The WhatsApp message received by Liz Lawson from who she believed to be her daughter.
The convincing conversation continued with Liz trying to help her daughter, suggesting ways she could fix the water damage.
“The most distressing part was I got a message saying: ‘I’ve lost all my photos and videos,’ which made me immediately feel like I was talking to my daughter because she works as a photographer,” Ms Lawson said.
“It was also very convincing because she’s been working on a boat, she’s lost and damaged her phone before, particularly water damage, and she’s asked me to make payments for her before, quite recently when she was buying new camera equipment.”
Through the back and forth, the scammer attempted a phone call.
“I asked her to give me a call as we always do and when I answered…
