Minister of Agriculture was victim of the “Hello father, hello mother” scam

The alert was released in October 2022, when a fraudulent scheme began circulating with the aim of stealing money. The scam known as “Hello father, hello mother” has claimed several victims and one of the most recent was the Minister of Agriculture Maria do Céu Antunes… but there is another well-known name.

This type of scheme is not new, but it continues to circulate in force in Portugal. The Modus Operandi is simple! The victim receives a message on WhatsApp saying that he is the son or daughter and that he needs money (but there are already several variants of the “decoy”).

The “attacker”, who pretends to be a son or daughter, starts by saying that he has changed his number and asks the “father”, who is the victim, to transfer him a certain amount via MB WAY.

As revealed by Observer (citing the Vision), Maria do Céu Antunes, mother of two girls, was one of the thousands of victims. In addition to the Minister of Agriculture, the former President of the Constitutional Court, João Caupers, also suffered an attempt to deceive, but in this case the attacker was unsuccessful.

According to the information, the Minister filed a criminal complaint with the authorities. It was not revealed how much value was transferred to the attacker.

If you receive a message from an unknown number claiming to be your child, always CONFIRM it before sending (via a call, or a message with a question/answer previously agreed with your child… etc.

This type of scam gained a lot of traction in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, and has been happening more and more frequently in Portugal. Remember that Phishing attacks continue to be the main attack vector in Portugal.