I just don't know why solicitors are even showing up on peoples doorsteps and I sure don't know why people don't have sense enough to just not answer the door to unexpected company, this would save an awful lot of problems. Anytime someone shows up unannounced at my door, I don't answer. You really shouldn't answer the door to unexpected company because of things like this and you also don't know who you're answering the door to because they could actually knock you in the head and rob you blind, especially if you live alone and you're a woman.
Fair warning to any potential vultures out there, you may be messing with the wrong person because one day you'll show up on the wrong door step and someone may have a weapon in hand waiting for you. Not smart to mess with anyone because one day you'll be messing with the wrong person and you may wind up dead so word of wisdom to vultures and even predators out there is to stop doing what you're doing and find another profession and make an honest living, leave people alone and stop showing up on peoples doorsteps or it may one day backfire on you because one day you will encounter the wrong person
What you need to do is get with the bank where your elder banks. Start there if you haven't done so already. Have them pull up all of the banking info especially when the scammer was pulling money from her bank account. See if you can dispute all the charges that weren't supposed to come out and get as much of her money back as absolutely possible. Now, see if you can somehow help by at very least monitoring her accounts and being put on as a trustee if it's OK with her. I would also change her number so the scammers can't ever call back. This would be a good idea and a smart move on your part. Make sure you lose the scammers number out of her phone and even set it up to block that particular number if the software in the phone allows it. Situations just like yours is why I strongly advise keeping all of the money in the bank so that way, scams like you're describing can be caught and the bank can easily get your money back. This is exactly what FDIC insurance on bank accounts is for. What's even better news is somehow FDIC can somehow recover money but I don't know how this is done. Keeping it all in the bank is a very good idea because now you have leverage to help your mom get her money back as long as it's not too late. If this was an inside job, I would see about contacting the head branch of this bank and putting a stop on that account. Explain to them exactly what you told us here and have all of your mom's personal info that they need, they may also need to talk to her even if you're speaking on her behalf they'll still need her permission. If she says yes, then definitely act on her behalf and tell them what you told us here. As for the contractor or whoever this other scammer was, I would go to the public records and pull up everything you can on that particular scammer and turn it into your state Attorney General's office and also the BBB in the area where this person lives, especially if they have a record as you're describing. In Ohio, our state attorney generals office also has an elder justice initiation department. I know that on their website, the default would be to deal with companies who take advantage of people so this is why I called with a general question to see if they handled other matters where individuals take advantage just like companies do and they said yes. This would be a smart move on your part to contact your attorney general to ask if they have an elder justice initiation department to deal with situations like yours were individuals take advantage of elders just like companies do
Your best bet would be to call APS on your matter if he is still living. If not, you'll have to get an estate lawyer and all the records you can gather including his death certificate and even a copy of the deed. I faced a similarity when I discovered someone gained a free house from my dad and sold it well below fair market value. That house is now being resold for fair market value. Your lawyer can look into this matter for you if your relative has died and you happen to be the administrator or fiduciary on your dad's estate. If this person still happens to be living and is incompetent, you may very well have to go for guardianship and gain access to all of his money and assets but don't abuse that privilege. I don't know what your financial situation is, but someone definitely needs to go for guardianship but it must be someone trustworthy. People end up abusing guardianship, POA and other positions over others and it seems to be a growing problem that really needs to be stopped
Anytime someone comes to your door that you didn't specifically invite, especially if it's to solicit, it's a big huge red flag something's off. It's always best to keep your doors and windows locked and use privacy shears on your windows so you can still see out and let light in. Never ever ever answer the door to anyone you're not expecting and definitely don't acknowledge them either by talking to them through the door or window. You may not believe this but it's so true that most people who are victimized or actually victimized by someone closest to them. I've been researching elder abuse and especially elder financial abuse for a little while and I've learned a lot. It actually took something happening to my dad for me to start learning. There are plenty of very informative videos on YouTube by actual lawyers who volunteer their time to share free legal advice. YouTube is a very good source for finding a wealth of info, it's there for the finding if you know how to sort through all the BS and find the real stuff. You can learn a lot about different types of scams and fraud, including real estate fraud. The good news is there are some stories out there where someone was cheated out of their house by someone close to them and the legal system was actually able to void the deed and get homes back into the names of rightful owners. There is one video out there on this very thing where a granddaughter cleverly swindled her granddad out of his house with the promise he could live out his days there. When the deed was final, he said she turned on a dime and tried to evict him from the home. That's when he got smart and got some help and finally got his house back. As you age, certain topics should be off-limits ahead of time so no one has as much of a chance to take advantage of you. Money and assets should always be off limits because it's up to you to protect your own assets well before anything has a chance to happen. I can also say joint bank accounts are bad news, it opens the door for the other person to clean out the bank account, leaving you high and dry. It's never a good idea to let anyone have access to your money or assets unless you're swindled out of everything. It's always a good idea to take responsibility for your own stuff well in advance. That way, it's much harder for anyone to take advantage of you, especially as you age. The wrong people will leave when they find out they're getting nothing from you. I know this for a fact because on my payday, someone I thought was my friend wanted to borrow some money. I'm on fixed income and can't afford to lose not even a small amount I know I may never see again. As soon as I politely declined to lend the money, that person quit speaking to me immediately. I thought at first he was just temporarily mad, but it turns out all he wanted me for was money! Now I know why I only heard from him when I was contributing most of the time to pizza nights. If you come up with the right boundaries and strategies to enforce them, you can make it much harder if not impossible for anyone to swindle you out of your money or assets including your home or car. Only you can prevent this from happening ahead of time if you know how to do it and do it right the first time. It should become a lifestyle so much to the point it becomes second nature. Only you can protect your future
hOW DO YOU GO AFTER SCAMMERS WHO HAVE BEFRIENDED YOUR ELDERLY STEP-FATHER, TALKED HIM INTO SELLING THEM HIS HOME FOR WAY BELOW MARKET PRICE, TALKED HIM INTO ALIENATING THOSE WHO REALLY CARE ABOUT HIS WELL BEING, AND THEN FIND OUT HE IS ASKING OLD NEIGHBORS FOR MONEY, WHICH, EVEN THOUGH HE SOLD THE HOME WAY UNDER MARKET VALUE, HE HAS NO MONEY!? ONE OF THE SCAMMERS WORKS AT A BANK, AND HER HUSBAND IS A REMODELING CONTRACTOR WITH A RECORD. IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE STEP-FATHER HAS THE BEGINNINGS OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT GETTING THE SCAMMER'S TO FESS UP AND GET RESTITUTION FOR YOUR ELDERLY LOVED ONE?
Another real estate related scam that my mother got talked into recently was a mortgage insurance scam where $25 was taken from her checking acct each month. (She has a little checking acct. that is hers, so she gave her ckg. acct. number out over the phone.) The deductions started, but I manage her accts and I saw it right away. She & my dad haven't had a mortgage in 6 or 7 yrs. But she has dementia and cannot figure this out. The person on the phone probably explained to her that it was for her safety, in case she couldn't pay, and she signed up for it. She lives in an assisted living facility where the phone nos and phone lines are provided with each apt. I wouldn't be surprised if scam artists know what phone nos. go with locations where the elderly reside. The deductions stopped and the first $25 deduction was returned to her acct. I threatened them with everything I could think of. Eternal vigilance is necessary.
For seniors who are interested in selling their homes, they or their families can look online to find an agent with an SRES designation (Seniors Real Estate Specialists). Those of us with that designation have special training to work with seniors and their families to address the specific needs that seniors have - the need for a little more time to understand, possible deferred maintenance and dated interior decor that could hurt a sale, the need to downsize many years of personal possessions, and the emotions that can accompany the sale of a beloved home.
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Another Scam Aimed at the Elderly: Real Estate Fraud
Fair warning to any potential vultures out there, you may be messing with the wrong person because one day you'll show up on the wrong door step and someone may have a weapon in hand waiting for you. Not smart to mess with anyone because one day you'll be messing with the wrong person and you may wind up dead so word of wisdom to vultures and even predators out there is to stop doing what you're doing and find another profession and make an honest living, leave people alone and stop showing up on peoples doorsteps or it may one day backfire on you because one day you will encounter the wrong person
What you need to do is get with the bank where your elder banks. Start there if you haven't done so already. Have them pull up all of the banking info especially when the scammer was pulling money from her bank account. See if you can dispute all the charges that weren't supposed to come out and get as much of her money back as absolutely possible. Now, see if you can somehow help by at very least monitoring her accounts and being put on as a trustee if it's OK with her. I would also change her number so the scammers can't ever call back. This would be a good idea and a smart move on your part. Make sure you lose the scammers number out of her phone and even set it up to block that particular number if the software in the phone allows it. Situations just like yours is why I strongly advise keeping all of the money in the bank so that way, scams like you're describing can be caught and the bank can easily get your money back. This is exactly what FDIC insurance on bank accounts is for. What's even better news is somehow FDIC can somehow recover money but I don't know how this is done. Keeping it all in the bank is a very good idea because now you have leverage to help your mom get her money back as long as it's not too late. If this was an inside job, I would see about contacting the head branch of this bank and putting a stop on that account. Explain to them exactly what you told us here and have all of your mom's personal info that they need, they may also need to talk to her even if you're speaking on her behalf they'll still need her permission. If she says yes, then definitely act on her behalf and tell them what you told us here. As for the contractor or whoever this other scammer was, I would go to the public records and pull up everything you can on that particular scammer and turn it into your state Attorney General's office and also the BBB in the area where this person lives, especially if they have a record as you're describing. In Ohio, our state attorney generals office also has an elder justice initiation department. I know that on their website, the default would be to deal with companies who take advantage of people so this is why I called with a general question to see if they handled other matters where individuals take advantage just like companies do and they said yes. This would be a smart move on your part to contact your attorney general to ask if they have an elder justice initiation department to deal with situations like yours were individuals take advantage of elders just like companies do
Your best bet would be to call APS on your matter if he is still living. If not, you'll have to get an estate lawyer and all the records you can gather including his death certificate and even a copy of the deed. I faced a similarity when I discovered someone gained a free house from my dad and sold it well below fair market value. That house is now being resold for fair market value. Your lawyer can look into this matter for you if your relative has died and you happen to be the administrator or fiduciary on your dad's estate. If this person still happens to be living and is incompetent, you may very well have to go for guardianship and gain access to all of his money and assets but don't abuse that privilege. I don't know what your financial situation is, but someone definitely needs to go for guardianship but it must be someone trustworthy. People end up abusing guardianship, POA and other positions over others and it seems to be a growing problem that really needs to be stopped
What I am really looking for is fraud being done by family members