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My parents were scammed out of thousands of dollars by a man who said he was the president of an investment company. There never was such a company and the man has quit answering their phone calls. Unsure of where to go next.

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You might read my thread too about my mom getting solicited by a scammer who works in the Assisted Living facility and picks up her marks there (along with other employees). There are no laws against it, and you can't do a thing about it. No place is safe! And these people know just how to do it so that the law can't touch them. It will have to keep happening and getting worse and worse before anyone will start doing something about it.
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In Pennsylvania I would go right to the Attorney General's office they have a whole department to investigate that. I'm sure the AG where you are would also get you to the right contacts.
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What do you do if the scammer was is in your own family. 15 years ago, my dad died and my brother put my mother's savings and proceeds from selling off dad's boat and such into an annuity for her. He has himself as the owner, her ssn is on it and all the interest is going to him in a neat little check each month. When I found out about it, I encouraged her to get an attorney to get it released from him, she did but no results, he keeps telling her it is not her money, I dont understand how he could continue to get interest off an account that is in her ssn legally. He does not give her any of the money, nothing has ever been deposited into her bank account and I have her records back to before my dad died. What should I do?
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My parents have also been scammed out of a tremendous amount of money before I took over their finances. I worked with the Sheriff and an FBI agent. Once the money is gone it's gone. Thankfully they are in Assisted Living now without credit cards and a secure phone- blocked number.
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Ms. Norman, Scams like this happen every day, unfortunately. A crime has been committed. The police should be notified. A record should have been created. Try to join a Class Action suit against the perp. Wait for the results but keep in touch with the attorneys handling the suit.
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If they still have his phone number, you can also report it at www.ftc.gov on their complaint form telling them all that happened and how many times he called. You can also let your state's attorney general know because they are usually the ones who handle elder abuse of this kind.
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He contacted them by telephone, stating he had found their name on an list on a internet site. Then he came to their home and talked them into investing into a business that I do not even think exsists. He pulled the religon scam on them of how he went to church etc. My parents go to church and took him at his word.
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Just out of curiosity, how did he contact or find your parents? Like did he cold call them and tell them a friend of theirs gave him their name or was there a function that he was a speaker at or did they contact him from a mailing he did or an ad in the newspaper?
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igloo572,
Thanks, I have already told them to change the bank accounts and have tracking put on their social security numbers and such. They also canceled credit
cards and opened other accounts.
They were ashamed to tell me stating, " I was so stupid. How could I let him do this to me." I assured them that this stuff happens often and the best thing to do was to try and get this guy before he can do it to anyone else.
He has charges on my states website in another county for obtaining money by false pretenses and other crimes. There are numerous charges in civil court for debt. I am attempting to contact the people on those cases to see if they had similar experience. I think to prove fraud I need someone else to help prove that his contracts were known lies before he gave them to my parents. Is that correct? I plan on pursuing elder abuse charges as well. I know one other person he did this to was an elderly person.
I have found the place this person lives via my own investigation, but when I looked up the information on the property his name was not on it. Thanks for any information you have on fraud or elder abuse that you can share.
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So sorry for your parents - as the economy gets worse, the fraudsters get better.
A Securities lawyer is probably the route to go if the person is in your state and has assets - but I bet the whole thing was an illusion. See if their state has a securities or commodities or investor fraud task force that you can file a complaint with. You know they won't be the only ones taken by this person. Talk around to see who else was taken and what the connection is. There could be some 3rd person/institutional liability here.

As they likely gave him lots of personal identity info, you should place a fraud alert & identity theft on their credit cards - contact the big 3 reporting firms to do this (e.g. TransUnion); also go to their bank and let them know. You may want to close down any accounts that Mr Fraud had/has account # access to. Like they went for dinner and paid and he had access to get their cc #. Check kiting still happens too.

This could be a good time to consolidate just how they do or manage their finances and have you or whichever child wants to be financially the overseerer for them.
Are they the type that were scared to tell you because they were ashamed?

On a positive note, they might be able to take the loss off on their taxes.
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