Overview
The victim expects they are helping out a friend or family member who is having an emergency.
How It Works
The fraudster impersonates a victim's friend or relative, and using email, SMS, or telephone, asks for money for an emergency, like bail, medical care, an accident, or being stranded overseas.
Sometimes the scammer also impersonates someone associated with the emergency, such as a lawyer, a police officer, or other emergency personnel.
Sometimes called the "Hi, Mum" scam in the UK, especially when conducted over SMS.
Sometimes called the "relationship imposter" scam.
Related Articles
Listed as a "top 10 scam of 2025" by Vermont Attorney General, VermontBiz January 12, 2026
Synthetic Examples
8.2 Sample Data 1 - count: 215. With fake phone numbers and urls
8.2 Sample Data 2 - count: 400. With fake phone numbers and urls
Related Scams
Other relationship scams
Related Crime Schemes
A particular instance of this scam may embed one or more of these related schemes.
Extortion: Extortion refers to any scheme that uses a threat of additional damage to extract payment from the victim.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to initially reach the victim.
Targeted Conversational Approach: The scammer approaches the victim through targeted, topical online conversation.
Social Engineering: Psychological Manipulations
The scammer may use one or more of these psychological techniques to accomplish the scam.
Family: The scammer uses the victim's family members in the scheme, or implies the victim's family members are involved.
Nice Guy: The scammer takes advantage of the victim's generosity or attempt to be "a nice guy".
Threats: The scammer employs threats to increase fear in the victim so that they will go along with the scam. Threats can include financial loss, legal action, arrest, account closure, extortion, blackmail.
Urgency: The scammer employs urgency to increase the likelihood that the victim will take action.
Social Engineering: Impersonation Techniques
The scammer may impersonate one or more of the following groups as part of the scam.
Friend or Family Member: The scammer impersonates a family member or friend.