Business Name Used:
None
Date Reported:
2024-05-10
Victim Postal Code:
00000
Total Dollars Lost:
$ 100,000
Scam Description:
My Father in Law is mid 70s and over the past 4 years has been repeatedly scammed out of a lot of money. Originally it was a fake crypto investment set up that he put a lot of savings into. By the time we found out, in 2021, he had lost around £100k (although difficult to tell the correct amount) to various different fake crypto and stocks sites, with lots of contacts with fake email addresses and Whatsapp contacts, with long, personal conversations, where he was treated as a friend, and encouraged to pass over more and more savings. Since this was discovered, we educated him more online, involved the police, got tips from them and tried to be more vigilant. Wrote up clear, obvious advice around his computer screen. However he is a very stubborn and difficult man to speak to at the best of times, and he has ultimately never really believed that it was fake, and still remains in some kind of bubble of confusion/ under the thrall of these scammers. He has moments where he accepts the money has been lost, but then he goes back to contacting them, or they come in waves, from different fake organisations promising he can get his funds back, if he just passes over another 2k, 3k etc. Last year we eventually managed to get tracking software on his computer, change his email address, new phone number. We convinced him to agree to lots of very clear guidance around activity online, that he would never search for crypto or investment online, never speak to people he doesn’t know without speaking to his wife or family first, and he agrees to it, but never follows through. We even got him to sign a family contract of rules to follow, immediately ignored. Since then, we periodically spot him going on crypto sites, trying to set up new email addresses, or, more recently, downloading Teamviewer, and sharing his screen with a scammer again. He’s shared his new number and email with scammers so that work is already untangled. He shares personal information, driving licenses, details of his next sale of land etc. He regularly gets angry about being spied on by us, despite him agreeing to having monitoring software in place. We have tried very careful explanations and guidance, we’ve been angry, sad, disappointed. We keep trying different approaches. At the moment, my wife doesn’t want to see him because he keeps breaking promises, and his wife would most likely get a divorce but she is quite scared about living alone. He’s an active, intelligent man for the most part, but seems to ignore or forget instructions, and regarding online safety and scams, he is clearly incredibly vulnerable with no desire to change. We’re stuck between being angry at him for his breaking of promises, and concern for his mental state and needing to provide level headed safeguarding. We’ve told the police, his friends, his respected peers, his family, but no-one can make him change his dangerous actions with these people. We have now set up his Whatsapp on his wife’s iPad too, so she can monitor things, but it feels like a constant game of whack-a-mole with a guy dangerously oblivious to logic. He has a lot of property, and is currently looking to sell property to pay off debts amounted on credit cards from all the scams. He is clearly very dangerous with money, and we feel like it’s all going to be given away if he continues.
