I have a father that has several times sent large sums of money to scammers that have claimed to have a romantic interest in him. Recently the same user name convinced him to sell his RV and then to send her all the money. The RV was his home. He is now currently staying at one of my Aunts. I did not find out about the sale of the RV up until another Aunt told me. I did confront my Dad because he had been lying to me or should I say keeping it from me because he did not want me to lecture him, I have in the past warned him many times that he should not be sending money to anyone but needs to take care of himself and himself only. My Aunts and I have agreed he needs help because he is not making sound decisions. Scammers are able to convince him to send money while telling the most dramatic stories that myself or any other person would not believe in a heart beat. My dad was a smart business man with his own company up until just 2 years ago when he decided to divorce my step mom and sell all of his machinery and trucks. Since, the divorce he has sent over 100k to scammers or close to the sum of by calculations between my step mom, aunts, brother and myself.
It breaks my heart the this actually exist in our world and elderly are taking advantage in this way. Any advice, thoughts and knowledge of resources would be so greatly appreciated.
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This is what I did:
I set up my name on my daddies' accounts. I moved money from his checking account to his savings account and he did not know this.
I would not let him see the savings account total he only ever saw the checking account.
He had a living trust and I asked him to resign from it so that I could take care of him - he agreed. This made me in charge of everything.
Start keeping a separate account of all his dealings so if you are asked about it you can prove it.
Start paying his bills and have him go paperless. Let him know you are now taking care of the bills and he doesn't need to worry about them.
Give him a limited prepaid credit card so he can buy what he needs and it will be limited to only that amount. yes its like an allowance.
Get him a grandpad - no scammers can call its only allowed to let assigned people call. Limited internet if you want. Has games, news, music, videos, pictures. Does not work on wifi it works on data so he can use it anywhere.
blessings to you
The problem you have here is one of competency. If your father were diagnosed with dementia so severe that he was no longer competent to make his own decisions you could file to be his guardian and take over his finances. As he is NOT, I assume, thusly incompetent his poor decisions-making falls under that same category as poor decisions make at any age at all. There is no way you can protect him. His SS will come into his account and he will likely send it right away. If the trailer is gone, then likely all else is as well. If Aunt is caring for him I advise her to make a shared living arrangement with him with an attorney. If she doesn't need the money she can at least put THAT amount away for him.
The dreadful thing here is that you need to make as complete a paper trail as you can here, and consider making a police report, as this amount given to others who are scamming will be considered as "gifting" by the Federal Government, and your Dad won't be eligible to receive care when he needs Medicaid.
You might consider a consult with an Elder Law Attorney to see if you have any options. I am so very sorry this is happening. Do also google AARP and look up scamming; many articles there to discuss with your Dad and some advice and numbers for reaching out for you.
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A fool and their money are soon parted. The answer to your question is no. There are no "resources" (and when you say resources I'm assuming you mean money) available that recover sums of money that some senior willingly and foolishly squandered on nonsense.
Since no one actually robbed or stole from your father no one is going to be prosecuted. He willingly gave his money away. Now he will have to live with the consequences of it the same way my father had to.
He squandered everything he had on a younger woman who was a low-class hustler. Then when the time came and he needed LTC, he couldn't go to a nice place because he couldn't afford it.
Pretty much all you can do now is try to petition the court for conservatorship/guardianship of your father and pray that you get it. Other than that there really isn't much you can do in situations like this.
it is very important to report the crime to local law enforcement and visit ic3.gov and report it there.
good luck
At first I talked with him would go up and straighten things out tell him not to do this. I would leave and he would go buy a gift card and give the numbers to the MAN ON THE PHONE. I had to take over or he would have been in debt and no place to live. I set up my name on my Dads account. I moved money from his checking account into another account and he did not like this and the man on the phone would tell him to sue me for doing this.
My Dad went from a retired business man to giving his hard earned money away. Most of this happened during COVID.
My Dad got very confused - I blame the money issues on his reasons to not be taking care of himself and his falling. My Dad is now in a nursing home with help from the state.
I live in Florida and have gone to many senior centers and churches and have talked to them about what happened to my Dad.
It is sad that this happens and I know it has happened to many.
It is very sad.
If your father ever recognizes the deception, he will probably be deeply embarrassed and remorseful, but some men never accept the reality of the situation.
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