Swindled (What can be done to help elderly friend scammed out of money?)

[RUSirius]

I am asking for help. A friends grandfather, who is showing signs of Alzheimers, has been robbed of $360,000.00 from a phone scam. This person told him he was a relative, and was in jail, and needed money. The scam took place over three months. It boggles my mind his grandfather never reached out to somebody, but he didn't and the money is gone. The family and the bank contacted authorities at the federal level. They were told since the individual/s involved live in mexico, or at least this is where the call came from, nothing could be done. I think this man was targeted, it was not random. The call may have come from Mexico, to me it doesn't matter, but it seems to me that some of this must have stemmed from the U.S. as well. The ability to solve this gumshoe style is beyond me. If you know something about this type of scam, or have an idea of who else they may be able to contact to get some assistance I'd appreciate it. In the big scheme of things, its not a big deal, the man still has a roof over his head, food to eat and some money remaining, although really not much, I would just like to be able to help a friend if I can. Thank you.

[donk]

My Grandmother got targetted by a similar scam, luckily her Alzheimers is not that bad and she was sharp enough to see through it, I will see her for the holidays and see if I can get any insights for you. Wish I could help ya now, bud...that sucks. They definitely target the elderly...

Hope you are well, love to you and the fam, Phil

PS--maybe add to the thread title? A hyphen and something about elderly phone scams? Maybe catch the eye with a member with experience?

[ThePythonicCow]

I am asking for help. A friends grandfather, who is showing signs of Alzheimers, has been robbed of $360,000.00 from a phone scam.


PS--maybe add to the thread title? A hyphen and something about elderly phone scams? Maybe catch the eye with a member with experience?

I added "(What can be done to help elderly friend scammed out of money?)" to the thread's title

[RUSirius]

Update. The initial phone call came from somewhere inside Montreal Canada, however the money was wired to a bank in Mexico. The cousin who was the relative the "phone callers" were pretending to be was found unconscious in the house on the floor of the kitchen, the next day that same cousin died in the hospital, still not sure why, he was only 30 years old. This is too strange, I have a hard time believing this is coincidental, the family is pretty shook up, my friend asked me to post the update, he is having a hard time believing this is coincidence as well.

[Gardener]

This is a terrible event to happen to a trusting elderly person, hope may lay in the investigation of the 'cousins' death.

[gripreaper]

Since you are dealing with an international crime, you would need to take this up with an international enforcement agency like Interpol. Try calling them and see if they can guide you on how to proceed. If you reach a dead end, try calling the United Nations, or the Hague criminal court or the International court of criminal justice. Someone will need to do the due diligence and stand in for this elderly person.

Until a case is filed and the bank account records and phone records are supoena'd, and it can be determined who opened the accounts and who used the accounts, there is very little recourse.

[Joe Sustaire]

Wow! I'm speechless.

[RUSirius]

Wow! I'm speechless.

I understand, me too.

[donk]

That's wild man. Cousin of my babe's got involved in some scam through Xbox live, not sure the details but he somehow got HIS cousin (my babe's sis' kid) involved (I think), but it resulted in that sis' house being raided by swat team in the middle of the night in a move of the scammer against the original (who I guess musta came up short $ wise or something).

Unfortunately it's filed under family secrets or not ok to talk about with lots of bad feelings among blood involved...which probably has a lot to do with any success any of these ventures have. All I know is even simple tech these days can cause lotsa people tons of grief...

[RUSirius]

That's wild man. Cousin of my babe's got involved in some scam through Xbox live, not sure the details but he somehow got HIS cousin (my babe's sis' kid) involved (I think), but it resulted in that sis' house being raided by swat team in the middle of the night in a move of the scammer against the original (who I guess musta came up short $ wise or something).

Unfortunately it's filed under family secrets or not ok to talk about with lots of bad feelings among blood involved...which probably has a lot to do with any success any of these ventures have. All I know is even simple tech these days can cause lotsa people tons of grief...

Sure can. It would be one thing if these "folks" were a modern day robin hood, but I think not.

[RUSirius]

It just keeps getting weirder. The nephew/cousin who recently mysteriously died at the hospital, all of his paperwork from the hospital has now disappeared. There is no record of what occurred at the hospital now. Wow.

[Pam]

I would demand details from the bank that distributed the funds. Are they in anyway accountable for transferring this kind of money from an elderly man's account from the US to Mexico without checking anything out beforehand? How was the money transferred and was it insured in any way? I would really check that out. There are all kinds of red flags that were triggered here and No one noticed a dang thing? That seems odd as well.

[RUSirius]

A sad and fast ending, my friends grandfather died of a stroke three days ago, my heart goes out to the entire family, what a crap ride they've been on these last few weeks.

[Violet]

Sincere condolences.