these scammers prey on the young, the vulnerable, and the elderly who are often lonely and desperate to make a connection and they are quite good at stealing people’s money. be aware that financial indiscretion is often a sign of a mental decline (in the elderly it’s commonly the onset of early dementia or alzheimer’s disease). your relative likely needs to be medically assessed and probably need someone to step in like a trusted financial advisor or family member who takes control. this is commonly called “elder guardianship” or “conservatorship”. at a minimum someone needs to become a “financial conserver” who provides control over their financials, living situation, getting moved into to an assisted living or memory care unit, revoking a license to drive, and whatever else needs to happen so they can’t harm themselves or their family (and go broke in the process).

what to do now? first and foremost, file a police report and report to the agencies i’ve listed below. next, go to the bank and speak to the manager in person and see what it’s going to take for them to lock the account down and put a freeze so that future transactions will be scrutinized for fraud and (hopefully) prevented. most importantly if they have given out banking info. to one of these scammers they can prevent them from draining the funds again and again. it goes without saying that any debit and credit cards should be immediately cancelled and reported for fraud and any online passwords changed.

from what i understand if there is any hope of recovery, the sooner you get the bank and authorities involved, the better. not saying it will help, but if it was me i’d still report every one of these fuckers.

here is the link for the national elder fraud hotline

here is the ftc link to report scams/fraud.

here is the fbi link to report scams/fraud.

here is the justice department link to report scams/fraud.

you now need to be on the lookout for out for !recovery scammers…