This used to be a common scam in certain developing countries in the 90s and early 2000s.<p>Scammers would call random numbers until a woman answered and would start by saying "Mom?" and if she said something like "Michael?", they would go "Yes, mom, it's me, Michael, sorry the connection is really bad and something is up with my phone..", because of course their voice would sound different. They would claim to have gotten into a car accident, and that they would be in serious trouble (low rule of law in those countries, problems resolved directly between people) unless they sent those people money right away.<p>I forget how exactly they expected the money to be sent, maybe it was mobile phone credits or something along those lines.<p>IIRC the scam was often done by convicts in prison who would get ahold of cell phones somehow and had all the time in the world to try to run that scam.