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Original poster

To think many fell for the Captain Tom scam

532 replies

Binjob118 · 12/11/2023 21:47

I never understood all the fuss about Captain Tom. A rich old man walked around his garden and was lauded as a hero. Family then go on freebie holiday to Barbados whilst rest of us were locked down for Christmas. Then it turns out he was part of family scam to pay the family from book proceeds. No wonder so many people in this country are targeted by scammers, we are a gullible lot.

OP posts:
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10
heartsinvisiblefury · 12/11/2023 22:24

Vitriolinsanity · 12/11/2023 22:22

I'm afraid I lost the will to give a shit when he dueted with Michael Ball.

🙌

LuluBlakey1 · 12/11/2023 22:24

The charitable work of the Captain Tom Foundation is pathetic. A few donations made to some institutions- but very few and very little money given.

Saffrom · 12/11/2023 22:25

It wasn’t a scam. He raised some money for charity. Fine. Then he discovered that he was famous, so he tried to monetise that fame to benefit his family - you and I would have done the same.

Yes he wrote a book and 😱😱😱 the money wasn’t donated to charity. Most authors do actually keep their profits from their work. I don’t see the problem.

BitofaStramash · 12/11/2023 22:25

The money raised by Captain Tom as not a scam no and went directly to NHS Charities.

Captain At did nothing wrong and the money he raised did a whole lot of good.

What's gone wrong us that after that the family set up and organisation and only some of the proceeds of his book went into that and the family pocketed the rest.

Fizbosshoes · 12/11/2023 22:25

I'm glad I wasn't the only one @Vitriolinsanity and @heartsinvisiblefury

Iwasafool · 12/11/2023 22:25

fuzzystar · 12/11/2023 22:08

We were all bored and scared we would die if we didn't wash our shopping.

Were we. Doesn't ring a bell with me and I can definitely say I didn't wash my shopping.

Saffrom · 12/11/2023 22:25

Also a whole thread slagging off a dead old man is in bad taste.

BitofaStramash · 12/11/2023 22:25

Binjob118 · 12/11/2023 21:54

One thing I don't get is why we don't question things if someone is older and 'respectable'. I actually never had a good feeling about him, I don't know much about him and I can't put my finger on it....

Get your facts right and stop ruining the reputation of someone who did nothing wrong.

Forsakenalmosthuman · 12/11/2023 22:26

I thought all of it.. clap for the NHS, Captain Tom, handsfacespace, report lockdown breakers, sanitiser, stockpile bogroll and refuse to touch shopping... all of it... was unmitigated cock and I still do.

Libertass · 12/11/2023 22:27

LuluBlakey1 · 12/11/2023 22:24

The charitable work of the Captain Tom Foundation is pathetic. A few donations made to some institutions- but very few and very little money given.

That’s because it was a giant scam from the start.

Got2getout · 12/11/2023 22:27

crumblingschools · 12/11/2023 22:23

@Supersimkin2 I assume there are rules about what the NHS charity can spend the money on. Probably similar to PTAs and schools where their funds aren’t meant to be used for normal running costs

This is exactly why I didn’t join in with the rush to donate. People were flinging money at Captain Tom as if it was going to fund staff, medicines and equipment. Instead it could only be used for unnecessary bits and pieces like benches and flower arrangements.

FuckingHellAdele · 12/11/2023 22:28

Saffrom · 12/11/2023 22:25

Also a whole thread slagging off a dead old man is in bad taste.

Oh I slagged him off when he was alive, no worries on that score

Monetm · 12/11/2023 22:28

It didn’t occur to me to think it was a scam but I always felt the tabloid fawning over him had much more to do with who he was (old, white, well-off, ex-army, and therefore ‘one of ours’) than what he was doing. Like if a young left-wing Muslim lesbian with tattoos had done exactly the same thing there maybe would have been one semi-positive story, but tabloid narrative very quickly would have turned to combing her social media for previous comments to prove that she actually hates this country, implying that she was funnelling money to her ‘lesbian lover’ (would be the wording used despite them being legally married), suggest that it was all attention-seeking or that it was a scam even when it actually wasn’t, etc etc etc.

AnnaMagnani · 12/11/2023 22:28

Loads of people thought the money was going to the NHS.

Instead it went to NHS charities - as no proper thought was put into where money 'for the NHS' should go at the start of the fundraiser.

As a result there were strict rules about what it could be spent on, mainly staff wellbeing, and it was split up across the whole country.

I got a mug from it. Basically the vast majority of the £28m was wasted on crap.

savoycabbage · 12/11/2023 22:30

I was told to do a class assembly on him. There was a whole pack on Twinkl. I didn't do it because the whole thing just seemed odd to me. I didn't get it at all at the time.

caringcarer · 12/11/2023 22:30

Gro · 12/11/2023 21:53

I think the daughter was the scammer not him.

I agree.

porridgeisbae · 12/11/2023 22:31

@Binjob118 I don't think we can say 'he was part of a scam.' As far as we know, he was sincere, his relatives just cashed in on it after his death.

TudorBeckham · 12/11/2023 22:31

I don’t think there’s any reason to think his fundraising was a scam, only that he wasn’t a saint and was quite happy to benefit on the side as a result of his new celebrity status.

I understand why he got so much coverage- the media wanted a good news story- but I’ve no idea why people became so obsessed with him and formed such strange ideas about him. His being knighted and made a colonel really made a mockery of these honours. Just some random old bloke with a daughter in PR.

MichaelBurnhamFan · 12/11/2023 22:33

AnnaMagnani · 12/11/2023 22:28

Loads of people thought the money was going to the NHS.

Instead it went to NHS charities - as no proper thought was put into where money 'for the NHS' should go at the start of the fundraiser.

As a result there were strict rules about what it could be spent on, mainly staff wellbeing, and it was split up across the whole country.

I got a mug from it. Basically the vast majority of the £28m was wasted on crap.

It didn’t even get spread between every hospital did it? Don’t hospitals have to pay to join NHS charities together? I seem to recall reading that it cost £1000.

WandaWonder · 12/11/2023 22:33

People have to take responsibility for not believing everything they see or hear, it would be great if life was all fluffy bunnies and no one in the world ever did anything wrong but the world is not like that, and personal responsibility seems to be vanishing, no one should be scamming we all know that but it happens

Lovemychair · 12/11/2023 22:33

crumblingschools · 12/11/2023 22:23

@Supersimkin2 I assume there are rules about what the NHS charity can spend the money on. Probably similar to PTAs and schools where their funds aren’t meant to be used for normal running costs

I think you're right, people I know think that money raised for the nhs goes towards staff salaries.

BonBon10 · 12/11/2023 22:35

I didn't give any money to this, public hysteria led by the news and social media. People are gullible. I didn't clap for the nhs on my doorstep either. I worked during the pandemic and also struggled not being allowed to see my dad who had only just gone into a carehome with dementia when lockdown began. He still recognised me then. He was 5 hours away from me. Dealing with travel bans and then only window visits, by the time I was allowed in the carehome wearing a mask, gloves, apron a covid test before and on the doorstep, I was a stranger to him.

Flapjacker48 · 12/11/2023 22:35

Many people from an army background were suspicious about it being a clever marketing scam at best. No retired officer below the rank of Major would ever refer to themselves as "Captain X" or ask to be addressed as such - Tom Moore would certainly be aware of this, being an army officer when etiquette like this was widely known.

porridgeisbae · 12/11/2023 22:36

he tried to monetise that fame to benefit his family

We don't even know he did that. Hannah is trying to say it's what he wanted, but there's no evidence of it. In the foreword of the book he talks about being glad of another opportunity to raise money for charity, by writing a book.

Tracker1234 · 12/11/2023 22:36

I actually think Piers Morgan did a good job during the interview with the family. He clearly had a soft spot for Capt Tom as he did a Life Story on him but that daughter and her pompous husband… I don’t like the way she brought her children into all of this either. They look barely out of school.

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