‘H ey hey, Zomo!” read a text from my sister, and I should have immediately smelled a rat. We never spell it “hey” – always “hej”, after the Swedish friend who taught us how to say “hey” in Swedish, in 1984. And “Zomo”, obviously, is not my name, although it represents me in her contacts list – the “mo” indicates “mobile”, dating back to a time (let’s call it 1994) when we would mainly use a landline. Also, she only uses an exclamation mark where it’s absolutely necessary: for instance, “What a jerk!”
That opener was so out of character I should have called her immediately to check she hadn’t been kidnapped. Instead, I read on: “Could you please vote for Mia? She is my friend’s daughter, and the grand prize is money for her education – every vote counts. Thank you!”
As she is my sister, I know all her friends. I know which ones have kids, I know all their kids’ names, I could probably in a pinch tell you which of them was in a ballet competition. I also know that, in order for a prize to be money for education, this kid would have to be at private school, a practice to which my sister is direly opposed. So that’s seven signs screaming “scam”, not even counting “every vote counts”, which she would never say, and the second exclamation mark.
On the other hand, my sister almost never asks for things, so I immediately did what she said, right down to scanning a QR code with my WhatsApp – and I’d fallen, hook, line and sinker, for the “ballerina scam”. Of unknown origin, this seeks access to your WhatsApp account, whence it can get all your contacts, read your messages, delete them if it chooses and forward more scams. But only – this bit is key – if you’re stupid enough to click on the link, then scan the QR code. It did the rounds in the Netherlands last month, and is tearing through Italy and south-east London as we speak.
A friend called later and said, “You’ll never guess how dumb my wife is – she almost fell for your sister’s ballerina scam,” the key word being “almost”. I’m medium sure I alone went all the way with this. Someone should take my phone away from me. But maybe, somewhere in the ether, they already have.
Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
