Joined Nov 2021
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Forum Thread
Help Me Help my Friend who’s being scammed online
January 29, 2024 at
06:30 PM
I have a friend who's a senior citizen and she's been scammed over and over and over. I think by the same person. Now this person has told her that he's going to have his close friend who's with the FBI contact her and they have now Skyped. All of her friends and family keep telling her he's not real but she doesn't believe it. I need to help her. The cops won't help.
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Give them her information so the believes them!
Aside from taking phone and internet away, about all you can do is block every known email address, phone number, etc that the scammer uses. Monitor the senior citizen accounts heavily. If you are on their bank accounts, set it up where they cannot make purchases over certain amounts. They can't use credit cards to buy gift cards, can't write checks to "cash" things like that.
Good luck.
God bless!!!
1) https://consumer.ftc.go
While money is rarely recouped, it sometimes can be. File a complaint on her behalf.
2) The identity of an FBI agent can be verified. Google how.
3) I'd watch Dr. Phil episodes with her. He's done a lot of shows about sweetheart scams. Many episodes are available for free on YouTube. Very informative.
4) Try to take her to places where she can meet other people her age. It's quite possible she'll take an interest in having an actual relationship with someone she can see and truly be with.
5) As a last resort, I'd file a petition to be guardian of her finances. She's clearly being scammed and everyone seems to know it but her. You don't need an attorney to do that. Courts have forms. It may not cost anything to file. To avoid being scammed by a court appointed guardian be sure to be clear that she's fine otherwise, but needs a friend or family member to help her. I'd request to monitor her for 6 months to 1 year.
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1) https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles...ance-scams [ftc.gov]
While money is rarely recouped, it sometimes can be. File a complaint on her behalf.
2) The identity of an FBI agent can be verified. Google how.
3) I'd watch Dr. Phil episodes with her. He's done a lot of shows about sweetheart scams. Many episodes are available for free on YouTube. Very informative.
4) Try to take her to places where she can meet other people her age. It's quite possible she'll take an interest in having an actual relationship with someone she can see and truly be with.
5) As a last resort, I'd file a petition to be guardian of her finances. She's clearly being scammed and everyone seems to know it but her. You don't need an attorney to do that. Courts have forms. It may not cost anything to file. To avoid being scammed by a court appointed guardian be sure to be clear that she's fine otherwise, but needs a friend or family member to help her. I'd request to monitor her for 6 months to 1 year.
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-...posed.html
https://www.youtube.com/c/JimBrowning
Or just have her Google the name Jim Browning and read up on the scams targeting older people. This guy is a saint. He's a tech guy located in Ireland and spends his spare time ferreting out scammers. He's smart enough to get into the scammers systems and actually monitors the phone conversations the scammers are having with the victim. As you can imagine, Jim Brown is not his real name. A great many of these scams are coming from makeshift call centers in and near India where the scammers get a commission based on how much they extract from the victim. The more she learns about these, hopefully she will recognize them and how these people use social engineering to gather data. She is not alone. Knowledge is power. She's lucky to have you as a friend.
1) https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles...ance-scams [ftc.gov]
While money is rarely recouped, it sometimes can be. File a complaint on her behalf.
2) The identity of an FBI agent can be verified. Google how.
3) I'd watch Dr. Phil episodes with her. He's done a lot of shows about sweetheart scams. Many episodes are available for free on YouTube. Very informative.
4) Try to take her to places where she can meet other people her age. It's quite possible she'll take an interest in having an actual relationship with someone she can see and truly be with.
5) As a last resort, I'd file a petition to be guardian of her finances. She's clearly being scammed and everyone seems to know it but her. You don't need an attorney to do that. Courts have forms. It may not cost anything to file. To avoid being scammed by a court appointed guardian be sure to be clear that she's fine otherwise, but needs a friend or family member to help her. I'd request to monitor her for 6 months to 1 year.
Password.
The best was recently he sent an email to my SC saying they both were going to be arrested by the FBI if my SC didn't pay the scammer $1000 immediately. I informed SC to reply with "don't drop the soap".
I would also get a list of every medication that the SC is taking and do your own research about dosages and side effects. One of the meds my SC was prescribed would cause brain fog in higher doses. If you haven't done so, ask the SC if you can go to doctor's appointments with them, and discuss your concerns with the doctor.
As LC2 said above, getting the SC out and away from electronics may help as well.