At this point I am willing to try anything to make her understand that she is not talking to Russell Crowe. If I could reach out to Mr. Crowe or his manager, I would do whatever it takes to get her to understand that she needs to stop.This month, Septermber she found out that she has Breast Cancer and will be going into surgery in October. Her doctor knows of this texting and he has mentioned to her she needs to save her money because of not knowing what she might need in the future after surgery. She is not truthful with Dr.We asked the Dr. if there's anything we can do, he said since she is buying and sending cards to this person, there's nothing to do.
Do you have any suggestions??
Thank you,
Rio1063
I filed the form on this page: https://www.ic3.gov/
And this page: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
I copied as much of the messages as I could (they were deleting their messages after he read them). For you, it would be copying the texts.
I reported the fake profile to FB and blocked them. If this person is also interacting with your mom via FB, then you need to do that as well.
Get your hands on mom's phone and report the texts as spam and block the number. She doesn't even need to know you did this. Go into settings and allow only phone numbers in her contact list get through and screen all other calls. (An update to my Google Pixel phone recently kept even the realtor handling the sale of my parents' home from getting through to me. I had to add his number as a contact.)
And as others have said, make a report to the police.
Get her a prepaid credit card and let her use that.
She clearly has either mental illness or dementia (her good judgement is gone).
Is she diagnosed with dementia or does she have Mets to her brain from the breast cancer?
My suggestion is to take your mother's phone with no access to internet. Contact your Attorney General's Office and report the scam. Your mother is a vulnerable adult and should not be taken advantage of in this manner. She will need her money for her care and not passing it on to criminals to support their families.
No doctor is going to solve this problem except to diagnose her with something (like dementia at a level that requires the intervention of a PoA).
Are you her PoA? If not, this may be a tricky situation to get under control. You can try taking screen shots of her texts and presenting them to her bank and giving them a heads-up that she is being scammed. They are often helpful in these situations.
I have a friend whose 80-something mom was swindled out of her entire life savings and her house and car by a similar scam. The mom STILL believes this Prince Charming is a real person who is going to materialize and marry her any day now.
My friend ( her daughter and only child) tried to get court ordered guardianship because the mom had no will/ DPOA and no diagnosis. The mom went through court-ordered testing for dementia and it was found inconclusive. She’s now living in a slum motel on nothing but her meager Social Security and eating the motel breakfast plus whatever junk food she can afford from the convenience store next door. Really sad.
Do as others have advised and get her a senior phone with no internet access that can only make calls or text. Then talk to her bank.
You will not make her understand that she is being scammed.
You will not be able to get her to stop sending cards, money, texts or anything else to anyone she should not be.
YOU need to take control of the situation.
Block numbers on her phone.
Set it up so she can make calls ONLY to those people that she knows.
If she is using a computer set up parental controls on that as well.
If all else fails you take the computer because it "broke" and you are going to have it fixed.
You take the phone because the carrier is changing and she needs a new phone. The phone you provide her with will not be a "smart phone" and you can have more control over that one.
The doctor telling her she needs to save money means nothing to her as she probably has no concept of money or if she does what the value of it is. Other than knowing that she can make purchases. But to her $1.00 is the same as $100.00 or $100,000. 00
If you are not POA of finances I think that ship has sailed and you need to get Guardianship.
If you are POA then you are not doing what you should to protect her assets.
See All Answers