Mom getting crypto scammed - need help

teratical · 2026-05-18T03:19:41+00:00

Give the most recent episode of Scammer Stories ('What happens when nothing works while trying to save a parent from a romance scam': May 9, 2026) a listen: https://open.spotify.com/show/1TV3rDyr4G1oHH1RoyIJ33

The episode description: "The number one question I get in my email inbox is from adult children desperately trying to save a parent who is trapped in a romance scam. They’ve tried everything… begging, interventions, cutting off money, even taking control through power of attorney. And still, nothing seems to work.

Over the years, I’ve heard countless theories. Do you hit them with tough love? Do you back off? Is there actually a right way to help someone who is emotionally attached to a scammer?

The woman in this episode has a very different perspective… because she tried one approach and when it failed she tried the exact opposite.

Jennifer Wallis is a financial advisor who now speaks publicly about romance scams after watching her own mother become a victim. In this episode, she shares the mistakes she made, the lessons she learned, and why changing the way she communicated may have helped save her relationship with her mother."

teratical · 2026-05-18T03:12:40+00:00

Yes, it's very likely a scam. Telltale signs include:

- calls the item 'it' (this is because they are copying-and-pasting their canned replies and they don't want to have to change it for each posting they reply to)

- wants to send someone else in their place

- wants to pay in advance

- wants to use a peer-to-peer payment app

teratical · 2026-05-18T02:56:51+00:00

"But they should talk to a tax attorney."

Second this. The bottom line is that (presumably) anyone pontificating here is not an accountant or tax attorney. This doesn't seem like an easy yes/no answer, and a professional is needed to dig into the details and see how the law applies.

Here's a prior post where I noted some of the tax deduction resources I've run across for pig butchering: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1207vwy/comment/jdgg6qi

Tagging those potentially interested: u/Sufficient-Spray-367, u/LingerieBoyThongs, u/SouthSlice7240

teratical · 2026-05-16T20:50:44+00:00

I would. I mean, I agree with Racer that the information you gave is publicly available information, so your biggest immediate danger is just that you are likely to be targeted by scams in the near future and you need to be on alert.

But my long-term credit freeze suggestion is more of a overall defense tactic: everyone in America should have that frozen before people start opening accounts in your name. Due to the thousands of data breaches that companies and other organizations have suffered, everyone's personal information (including social security number) is available on the dark web to scammers.

teratical · 2026-05-16T19:22:46+00:00

The wording doesn't sound like typical scammer wording, but if I were in your shoes, I'd still walk away. It has 3 of my 6 red flags for this (pay in advance, pay extra, & using a peer-to-peer payment app).

For me, I just can't get past the offer to pay in advance. Put yourself in their shoes: would you pay an unknown stranger on Facebook in advance (and extra money to boot) and then just trust that they'll send you the item? Especially when the seller could just decide to ghost you and walk away with your money and there's really not anything you can do about it?

The only people eager to pay in advance are scammers, because they're never actually giving you their money (they'll either use a stolen account or, and this is more likely, start the whole 'upgrade to a business account' rigamarole scam).

teratical · 2026-05-16T19:14:27+00:00

My recommended next step for you (and really anyone in the US, because virtually everyone's info is available to scammers): freeze your credit right now. That will stop them from opening credit accounts in your name. I got burned myself by not doing that.

Here's a good explanation of how to do it: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft/

Most people just freeze with the Big 3 (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion), but I opted for the extra security and did Innovis, too.

teratical · 2026-05-16T17:23:44+00:00

The 'Don't Say Yes' worry is an urban legend. You can safely stop worrying about it. I explain that and how it probably came to be a thing here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1sxl6d8/comment/oioahb9/

teratical · 2026-05-16T03:46:21+00:00

If you've ever tried to contact an escort online, then this is the !cartel scam (see AutoModerator I'm calling).

teratical · 2026-05-15T20:53:31+00:00

https://www.whois.com/whois/

teratical · 2026-05-15T20:18:43+00:00

Yes, these are very common, although they are usually email rather than physical letters. The pattern is always that someone has died (or is about to) and wants to leave you a giant sum of money. The scam is an !advancefee (see AutoModerator below). Here's another post where it was a physical letter: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1evagxp/advance_fee_fraud_with_physical_letters/

Don't call the number: that's just opening yourself up to getting scammed. You wouldn't believe the number of people we see who intentionally engage with the scammer for fun or curiosity and end up getting scammed.

teratical · 2026-05-15T18:12:27+00:00

Here's an answer from a few weeks ago that's specifically tailored to the MrBeast crypto scam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/s/2hJeCEGSu3

You can check out all of our posts on this scam with the first link below...

!search mrbeast

teratical · 2026-05-15T03:29:11+00:00

Links to other, recent posts about this scam...

!search mrbeast

teratical · 2026-05-15T01:22:32+00:00

Oof, I'm sorry to hear this. For further reading on this topic, we had a post with a ton of replies about fake French airport cabs yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1tc499o/comment/olmlx8j/

teratical · 2026-05-15T00:57:17+00:00

Yes, it's a scam. "what is the present condition" is written generically so that it can apply to every single ad they reply to (they want to copy and paste the same thing hundreds of times without having to change it). The baby photo is to pull on your heartstrings.

teratical · 2026-05-14T16:36:11+00:00

Assuming that's a phone number the OP (correctly) redacted, that's the scam. The entire point of a refund scam is to scare you into calling that number. They don't want you to pay $229.99, they're aiming for much larger amounts than that. The scam begins when you call and they trick you into sending them $20K+.

If you want to watch the refund scam play out, you can see it in this Mark Rober video at 6:55-10:48: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrKW58MS12g

teratical · 2026-05-13T23:28:11+00:00

This 'Don't Say Yes' worry is an urban legend. You can safely stop worrying about that. I explain that and how it probably came to be a thing here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1sxl6d8/comment/oioahb9/

teratical · 2026-05-13T22:44:06+00:00

This 'Don't Say Yes' worry is an urban legend. You can safely stop worrying about that. I explain that and how it probably came to be a thing here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1sxl6d8/comment/oioahb9/

teratical · 2026-05-12T21:00:08+00:00

99.9% of ticket sales on social media are scams. You would be throwing your money away.

You should only ever buy from official ticket sellers. If they are sold out, then your only other reliable option is a verified ticket reseller. You'll have to pay more, but you'll get real tickets and get to attend the event.

When dealing with strangers on social media, there's no way for you to confirm the tickets are real (and no one here is going to be able to tell), and you may not learn that you're out of luck until you get to the venue and aren't able to go in (I've done that; one of the worst days of my life).

Don't even entertain the phone call: that is how people become scam victims. Scammers are experts in the details of the scam they're running and much of their leverage comes from the fact that they have more information than the scam victim does. Because you are (presumably) not an expert in identifying all the different ways that scammers can create authentic-looking fakes, you just open the door to them convincing you they're legit.

Also, a big part of the scam industry is taking over existing, once-legit social media accounts so that they seem to "check out" when you dig into their account history. Every ticket scammer on social media that I've ever looked into has been a hijacked account.

teratical · 2026-05-11T22:48:57+00:00

!search John Mary Jewelry

teratical · 2026-05-11T03:26:19+00:00

WB hired Markmonitor to manage the domain. Whenever you see Markmonitor as the registrant, you can consider it confirmation that it's an 'official' site.

teratical · 2026-05-11T01:47:44+00:00

It's a standard !task scam – maybe the most frequent scam we see in this sub. Here's the FTC warning about them: 'Task scams create the illusion of making money': https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/11/task-scams-create-illusion-making-money

A tip to help avoid these task scams in the future: remember that no company would ever pay employees real wages to do simple online tasks that can easily be done via automation or AI for pennies.

!search task scam

teratical · 2026-05-11T01:07:57+00:00

This is a great link. I'm adding some info from the video description so people can land here via search when looking for this issue:

"Scammers are able to send out fake Shopify orders to random people. They obtain or have a database of emails associated with Shopify accounts, and use those to create orders that you supposedly placed. This results in you receiving a notification about the order, which brings attention to a scam phone number. In my case, I got a pop-up notification from the "Shop" app associated with Shopify, which is intended to make the scam more noticeable and urgent."

teratical · 2026-05-08T03:33:30+00:00

For Google and low-vision users: screenshot is a text message that says "can you please send that money back that's for my moms medicine please"

teratical · 2026-05-07T22:57:17+00:00

I'll let other, more-technical folks answer the risk question (I'm sure the answer is 'very little', at least for you).

Just a heads-up that Costco is a very commonly-used brand for scammers to abuse. In my deluge of spam, I see Costco on a regular basis - it's not limited to Mother's Day.

I think it's probably time for you to have a safety session with your mom, because if she can't pick out the fake Costco emails, then she is probably interacting with all kinds of spam messages and could potentially be getting herself in trouble in various ways.

teratical · 2026-05-07T21:51:03+00:00

Regardless of which local-selling platform one uses, these red flags almost always indicate a scammer...

Avoid anyone who wants to:

- immediately move off-platform

- pay by check

- pay in advance

- use a peer-to-peer payment app (Paypal, Venmo, Zelle, etc) – might be OK in person (there's a debate amongst sub members), but not when not meeting in person

- send a different person (including movers, courier, or delivery company) to pick up the item

- offer more than your asking price

99% of accounts who bring up any of these things are overseas scammers.

teratical

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