To think many fell for the Captain Tom scam

[Binjob118]

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.

The prologue of the book says it is a “chance to raise even more money for the charitable foundation now established in my name.” That doesn’t suggest, to me, that he wanted Hannah Ingram Moore to keep the profits of it. Maybe he wanted her to keep some of it, but not all of it. She’s a con artist.

I thought the whole thing was off from the beginning. Me and DS1, who was locked down in barracks, saw straight through it. It drove me mad how it was on every news bulletin, every topical program. People felt they had to share it on social media. I wanted to scream. Then just as we were starting to be allowed out again we were punished with that god awful song. 😫

I was a proper grundle at the time about both Captain Tom and the stupid pot banging and clapping and I make no apologies for my attitude.

YY @itsallovernowbabyblueee this very much this. Stupid stupid clapping for the NHS wtaf. I worked for the NHS at the time and was ridiculously busy (that's fine tho!) and someone standing outside their house clapping - errrrrr - not really helping.

And yy Captain Tom - people thought "well I've bunged him a tenner so I've saved the NHS, yes?" the amount he raised was utterly a drop in the ocean. I don't think most people have any idea how much even the smallest NHS trust spends each year to keep going.

I did get the hype over an older codger walking around his garden.

It was really scraping the barrel even for covid. His daughter was a calculating piece of trash and there was no way this was a sweet story picked up by the paper she engineered it all.

Recordings of You'll never walk alone just for him was so embarrassing

i thought the reason the media latched onto Captain Tom was because he was almost 100 years old and started doing laps of his big (?) garden during lockdown for exercise which was kind of setting an example during a pandemic when keeping healthy was important.

Wasn’t a video posted on SM first and the press picked it up? Can’t remember how he got into the public eye.

I got the impression he was a good egg and it was a nice feel good story that he was doing that at his age.

I think his daughter saw an opportunity when it was picked up (or planned it) and basically took advantage and used him as a cash cow. He was obviously a vulnerable elderly man.

I very much doubt he wrote the books at 100 years old! May not have even known what it was in them. He was not far off the end of his life.

He’s probably turning in his grave with what his daughter did to besmirch his memory. Horrible.

Well it does with me. I didn't wash my shopping but I was afraid I was putting my family at risk by not doing it.

I'm not convinced that Capt Tom was a scammer. He did do the walking and he caught the mood of the nation at the time perfectly.

I think his daughter and son-in-law are opportunists who have tarnished his name and legacy.

That isn’t correct. All the initial NHS millions went straight to the NHS. The family isn’t ever see a penny of that money (thank god).

I know someone who met the daughter in a business capacity whilst it was all going on. She was out to make as much money as possible for her family.

It’s possible he was in on it but I would have thought he would have split the money between his daughters, not left it all in one account that named only one daughter, her husband and her two kids. I also think from what he said he thought the money raised from the book was going to the NHS charities and the fact the family tried to hide that shows they knew they were tricking people.

I'm a nurse and see public money wasted on a daily basis. Please everyone stop giving to hospital charities etc as its all wasted.

That contradicts what Captain Tom actually wrote in the book, which was the the proceeds were for charity.

YANBU, but I think Captain Tom himself is innocent. Walking round the garden is no mean feat at that great age, and obviously the attention this got raised lots of money for charity.

But it should have been a sweet and inspiring story that didn't last more than a couple of days in the news.

His daughter and son-in-law are grifting fraudsters who milked him for all he was worth and tarnished his legacy.

What made you think you weren't sure?

Don’t be ridiculous, it’s not all wasted. Our local hospital have bought state of the art equipment through donations.

Quite! Where were all you Mumsnet sceptics when a minority of dissenters were being piled on?

They were with me, in the MN Sin Bin (because HQ suspended and deleted the threads of anyone who didn't toe the 'lockdown is a jolly jape because I'm furloughed and live in a nice big house with a huge garden and everything is marvellous' line).

By virtue of the media loving old, white rich men with medals Old Tom's kind charity gesture became a phenomenon. If he raised 20 million and it went to NHS charities then so what if subsequent book proceeds go to family? Fluke fame anyway so no harm in chucking in an extra book.... Plus the daughter was clearly a business person. Nobody should be raising money for the NHS it's a public sector body delivering essential services. I'd much rather know about the 38 million in dodgy PPE contracts, where's that?

I wasn’t sceptical. I believed that he was a fine man determined to do something good with what little time he had left.

I know that he was intelligent and high achieving, but I still reckon that he was not in on the scam. His daughter and her husband are despicable people who - I think - saw an opportunity and made use of him.

Was there ever a Captain Tom with Paddington Bear meme?

We sure were.

Knew it was a scam from the off. He showed up at the end of WW2 when it had ended with his officer class . Auld scammer was a salesman lol. As for his repulsive children. There where many old people raising money genuinely at that time who did not get anywhere near the publicity he did as they were the wrong colour and class.

I think your thread title should be edited, or the thread should be pulled. It's defamatory to call it 'the caption tom scam'. The money he raised in his sponsored walk was donated to the NHS charity. It wasn't a scam. People didn't 'fall for it' because they're 'gullible'. It was a dark time and we needed an uplifting story - especially the millions of vulnerable elderly people living alone and scared of catching covid and dying. He wasn't a saint, he was someone who did something positive despite the limitations of his age, instead of sitting on the sofa whinging.

The conduct of his daughter since his death is another matter, and it certainly appears that she was on the make.

And clapping for health workers began in China - I think it was in Wuhan - where people virtually imprisoned in their tower blocks began clapping and cheering at their windows for doctors and nurses.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/captain-toms-family-changed-and-cut-me-out-publicist-says-despite-work-on-life-changing-announcement-12991468

this article claims that even the fundraising page was set up by a PR person

We got three day suspensions

we genuinely got targeted on other websites

we left for a long time and tried not to plan our endings. I'm still here because one friend recognised the emergency and came to get me from the high rise I lived in at the time.

the threads where we talked openly were mostly deleted.

Seriously @CesareBorgia you must have seen some of us?

@Binjob118 Traits like greed tend to run in families (?)

Read that back to yourself. Very slowly. Now tell me, do you take after your mother, or your father? Or perhaps one of your grandparents?

What about your siblings, if you have any (your theory predicts you should be very similar to each other IIUIC)?

I'll stop there

@ScrubMommy looking back at the Covid threads and all the craziness on there, I can just about imagine how the threads went down when a few posters questioned its authenticity.