Thanks, I learned yet another way to scam people. But no such thing happened. My mother understands the concept of SMS, she says this did not happen, and she keeps the old messages on her phone, I checked them. Someone simply made a Whatsapp account with her phone number without her receiving any SMS message. I have no idea how that is possible—but that is exactly my point. (And, as usual, Whatsapp does not have any customer service that we could contact and ask.)
She already changed her number, so unless the same thing happens again, we consider this problem solved. It was just an illustration how difficult to understand things are (even for an IT guy such as me).
Alternative explanation: Your mother did participate in the scam in some way and is too embarrassed to admit it.
(You know your mother better than I do. I’m just saying this might have happened and you might not have considered it.)
Thanks, I learned yet another way to scam people. But no such thing happened. My mother understands the concept of SMS, she says this did not happen, and she keeps the old messages on her phone, I checked them. Someone simply made a Whatsapp account with her phone number without her receiving any SMS message. I have no idea how that is possible—but that is exactly my point. (And, as usual, Whatsapp does not have any customer service that we could contact and ask.)
She already changed her number, so unless the same thing happens again, we consider this problem solved. It was just an illustration how difficult to understand things are (even for an IT guy such as me).
Alternative explanation: Your mother did participate in the scam in some way and is too embarrassed to admit it. (You know your mother better than I do. I’m just saying this might have happened and you might not have considered it.)