Hi Mum Heatwave Text Scam 2026: What It Is and How to Avoid It

The "Hi Mum, I'm So Hot" Text That's Draining Parents' Bank Accounts This Summer

It starts with two words. It can end with your bank account empty.

If you've gotten a text this summer that starts with "Hi Mum" or "Hi Dad" and mentions being overheated, stressed, or stuck with a broken phone in the heat, I need you to stop and read this before you do anything else. Scammers have found a new hook, and they're using this summer's heatwave to make one of the oldest tricks in the book feel urgent and believable all over again.

How It Actually Works

The message usually reads something close to this; "Hi mum, I'm so hot and stressed. Mum, please text me on this new number, it's urgent". Sometimes it's framed as a broken phone, sometimes as heatstroke, sometimes just general summer exhaustion. The specific wording changes, but the structure never does. It's designed to sound like your own child, reaching out from an unfamiliar number, during exactly the kind of stressful, sympathy-triggering moment that makes a parent respond first and think second.

Once you reply and save that "new number", the scammer has what they actually wanted; your trust and an open line of communication. What follows is a request for money, sometimes framed as needing help paying something off urgently, sometimes as a direct bank transfer request, sometimes by walking you toward setting up a card on a digital wallet like Apple Pay or Google Pay and then asking for the verification code your bank just sent you. That last step is especially dangerous, because it lets the scammer add your actual card to their own phone.

This isn't new in concept. The "Hi Mum" scam has been circulating in various forms since at least 2022. What's new is the packaging, criminals leaning directly into this summer's heatwave to make the urgency feel seasonally specific and emotionally sharper.

Why This Version Is Working So Well

I think the heatwave framing is genuinely clever, in the worst way. A generic "I lost my phone" text asks you to take a small leap of faith. A text that says your child is overheated and stressed adds a layer of physical worry on top of it, and worried parents move faster and question less. That's exactly the psychological lever scammers are pulling.

And this isn't a small, isolated problem. More than £1.5 million was lost to this exact category of fraud between February and June of this year in the UK alone, with over 1,235 separate reports filed with Action Fraud. Victims have handed over an average of roughly £1,000 per incident since this scam pattern first emerged. Fraud investigators expect it to keep climbing as we move further into the season, and again later this year as students head off to university, another moment when a "new number" text from a supposed child feels entirely plausible.

The Three Rules That Actually Protect You

Every fraud agency and bank tracking this scam gives essentially the same core advice, and it holds up because it's simple enough to remember in the moment you're actually stressed and worried:

• Don't reply to the number in the text, replying confirms your number is active and invites more targeting, even if you don't send money

• Contact your loved one on their usual, already-saved number before doing anything else, if it's really them, they'll confirm it in seconds

• Forward the suspicious text to 7726, a free reporting service that helps phone networks trace and block the numbers being used

If you genuinely can't reach them right away and the message keeps pushing you to act, ask a question only your real child would know the answer to; their middle name, a family pet's name, an inside joke, before you consider anything else. Scammers are working from a script. They can't answer that.

What to Do If You've Already Responded

If you've replied, shared any personal details, or sent money before realizing something felt off, don't sit on it out of embarrassment. Contact your bank immediately and explain exactly what happened, banks have specific fraud protocols for this exact scam because they see it constantly. Report it to Action Fraud if you're in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland, or Police Scotland if you're in Scotland. And if you shared a password anywhere in the exchange, change it immediately across every account where you reuse it.

The Bigger Pattern Worth Remembering

I want to leave you with this, because it applies to more than just this one scam. Every version of this trick relies on the same three ingredients; urgency, emotional stakes, and an unfamiliar channel, a new number, a new app, a new "temporary" contact. When all three show up at once, that's your signal to slow down, not speed up. The scammers are betting that your love for your family will outrun your instinct to double-check. Prove them wrong. Call the number you already have saved. It takes thirty seconds, and it's the single most effective thing you can do.

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Michael Routhier is the founder of Tech 4 Grown-Ups, providing honest, unfiltered digital literacy for adults 55+, and host of The Virtuous Machine, exploring the ethics and human cost of AI. Read by tech-curious readers in 50+ countries. Explore more at tech4grownups.com.