What started as a hello from her son turned into a near-financial disaster. Luckily, one moment of quick thinking saved a mum from losing thousands. A Sydney mum was moments away from transferring $5000 to a scammer posing as her son before she was saved by a moment of quick thinking. When Lisa*, 64, received a text from her son, she thought nothing of it. Little did she know it was a “Hi Mum” scam, where cybercriminals impersonate family members before exploiting the victim’s sympathies and asking for money. “Hi, mum. I have got a new phone and number. You can delete my old one. Can you let me know if you received this message?” it read. Once Lisa asked which of her two sons were texting her, the hacker had a name and claimed to be her eldest son, Tim. The first message. Picture: Supplied Lisa was sure she was talking to her son. Picture: Supplied In the following texts, the scammer claimed to be “stressed out”. After Lisa tried to comfort her son, they said they were having ban...