Father scammed out of life savings - is there anything I can do?

[RalIy]

Hi,

My dad met a man who I believe has groomed him. He was very lonely and this guy kept promising they would go into business jointly together. Over the past five years my dad has emptied his pension and given this guy nearly £100,000. I even caught my dad with forms to remortgage his house! He said his “friend” had given them to him.

He has now accepted his “friend” has scammed him but refuses to go to the bank or contact the police because he is too ashamed. He is now living solely on his state pension which doesn’t even cover the bills. He is so depressed about his financial state he has talked about ending his own life. He is still in sporadic contact with his “friend” as the friend keeps promising he will pay him back one day and my dad is holding out hope so refuses to go to the authorities for fear of “spooking” him. He has also stolen items of art work from my dad and sold them.

I’ve looked the guy up and I’ve seen he has gone to prison before for fraud and it appears his father was a career criminal. Obviously a criminal family. There is no way my dad is getting the money back from him.

Is there anything I can do? If I convince my father to go to the bank is there anyway of recovering the money given he gave the money up voluntarily? There is no paper trail.

Also, he sent the money to various limited companies rather than the guy himself. The limited companies have since been shut down.

My dad doesn’t have any mental impairments so I am not sure if he counts as vulnerable but he is in his mid 70s.

He cannot afford a lawyer and neither can I - I am in my early 20s living in London so nearly all my money goes on rent.

Op would he see his GP? Maybe 'for shock'? Write to his GP about his mentions of suicide if you can.

I believe my dad ended up on some kind of 'suckers' list' for criminals all over the world. A new phone might be a good idea, with the scum deleted off it.

I know a lady who's mum was scammed by a man on online dating, materialised after contacting the police he'd scammed others too and it went to court and she got a lot of her money back

I would phone the police whether he wants you too or not and get the ball rolling, scum like this need taking to task.

I've just been on a webinar about the psychology of fraud given by a police expert on the subject and he said the exact opposite to you. He said that it can happen to anyone and that's what the criminals count on that we are all vulnerable to it. Even he - an anti fraud policeman - admitted he'd been the victim of fraud.

As they poster after you said, they keep going from person to person until they catch one in the wrong frame of mind which makes them susceptible at that moment.

I also think that anyone can be scammed. I know of a company where the emails had been compromised, probably for up to a year before the scam went into operation. Every single email went through the scammers, they learned how emails were phrased, the written 'accent', who would ask for financial transfers and for what reason. They learned to accurately imitate all the management and financial team. They could block emails from going to the right person and reply to them themselves. Then one day when all the relevant people were in different time zones or about to go on holiday they struck. They had about half a million transferred to various accounts before someone picked up a phone to double check something and realised that the requests were not coming from the person that they seemed to be coming from.

My friend has no particular vulnerabilities. She is very intelligent and has lots of common sense. I’m afraid she doesn’t fit into the view you clearly have of people who get defrauded.

Obviously some people, due to their own needs, are more vulnerable. However even the most savvy people can be caught out because some scams are extremely clever. , especially those using technology. Luckily she picked up on it quickly and dealt with it, but she was horrible embarrassed.

Exh was scammed out of his pension lump sum, it was an investment scam & was what he had planned on leaving ds.

A relative was scammed out of a 6 figure sum and was also about to remortgage the house. He initially refused to believe he had been conned and was scared to tell the police due to various threats which we later uncovered. I spoke to Action Fraud and the police on his behalf and they were brilliant (but don't rely on them to get the money back).

I pursued his bank (with his help). Luckily it was one of the banks who've signed up to a voluntary fraud compensation scheme (about 10 banks in this including the big 4). This type of fraud is called authorised push payment where the victim thinks they are paying a genuine person. We laid out all the details and argued that his cash withdrawals and bank transfers should have been flagged by their fraud alert systems.

Two months later the bank refunded every penny.

Don't give up hope, but be prepared to fight. My relative gave me permission to lead all the conversations with the bank (we did phone calls together) and I emphasised his age and vulnerability and my surprise at the way the bank had failed to notice some blatant warning signals.

Good luck.

Just to add, my relative is not mentally impaired, but would still be considered vulnerable as he is in his 70s.

Some people are more likely to be scammed, sadly often elderly people who don't really "get" online banking and are maybe not used to the "urgency" that these bastard scammers use.

However, any body can be caught off guard by the right kind of scam, by the right type of scammer when they don't think they can be scammed.

If it takes you longer to check and re-check every transaction you do especially if details change when you didn't expect them too then it doesn't matter.

Urgency is always something to be wary of, if someone if making you feel rushed or hurried then ask yourself why are they making it urgent.

Usually it is to make you do something that you wouldn't if you had time to slow down and think carefully.

Remember that any genuine transaction will never be desperately urgent so be wary.

@RalIy the bank say that as she went into several branches (she is local to three branches so just went where ever)and when they asked her to confirm she knew who these payments were being made to she said yes. Which is true but if you see the texts these people were bombarding her, all hours with messages, she is 72 years old and was terrified.

Bank have said they will contact us after investigating but they haven't asked for the text messages or anything. I wonder why these transactions didn't flag or anything as they were several thousands of pounds each time and that is not normal for MIL'S account.

We feel awful and so guilty as we were not near and all this happened in the space of a week. Just wish she has picked up the phone and rang us but god knows how they twisted her mind.

Also report it your local authority Adult Safeguarding team. It comes under their remit because your dad is an older adult, was lonely, it has had a serious and negative effect on his mental health (talk of suicide). And importantly, it may not be over, as he still has contact with the scammer who has already tried to get to him to remortgage his house once and for all you know, may do so again.