Help !!adult SEN/autistic being groomed&scammed on line .Police not able to help

[rileynexttime]

This is daughter of old school friend .The daughter lives independently ,with support from mother ,church etc .Peers of old school friend have suddenly received emails supposedly from this daughter ,which is how it's come to my attention .

The mother says the scammers have had £100s from her daughter .Police cant/wont help because the money has been freely given.They seem unwilling to take SEN& Autistic traits into account .

Scammers have convinced the daughter that the mother is against her ,doesn't love her .

What on earth can be done in this situation ?

@rileynexttime Has her mum tried contacting her daughter's bank? The bank should be spotting unusual withdrawals and blocking them if there is suspicion someone is being scammed, especially as the daughter would be regarded as vulnerable.

Thanks @PlateBilledDuckyPerson ,it seems it's a scam involving store cards and using them for gaming .
I don't have the full details ,very hard to help .

Somewhere, there will be a bank behind those store cards - I would suggest her mum gets on to the card company to ask why they allowed such a high volume of transactions. Depending on her level of SEN it might also be asked whether the level of credit extended to her was responsible and appropriate.

The Financial Ombudsman Service has advice about pursuing finance-related complaints and the complaint can also be referred to them for adjudication if it can't be sorted out with the card provider direct.

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

thank you very much ,@PlateBilledDuckyPerson .That's really helpful .

Hi - really feel for you and the helplessness of not being able to advise the young person in person. I really hope that her social worker or a trusted adult can explain to her that these people are not her friends.
My son is autistic and just started at uni. He is constantly targeted by a range of scammers (bitcoin, investor training, lottery winnings, sugar mummy... you name it) and he just doesn't realise that their promises will never come true. If he had had access to a lot of money it would likely all have gone. We deliberately keep his bank account under £80 so that he has enough for grocery shopping but can't give these scammers the £100s they are after. He is with the Halifax and tbf they have saved him a LOT by spotting scam online transactions and refunding them when he tells them it was not him. They also can freeze online transactions and I was so happy about that because I thought it would sort the problem. However it turns out that being the customer he can turn them back on again NOOOO! Because of that in the last week he has lost £15 to one scam (Steam card) and been signed up to a subscription he doesn't need. He has now turned online off again but next time someone asks him for money he is likely to turn it back. He just feels totally obliged to do as they ask, and doesn't reach out for help until it's too late. I really wish there was a quick way to report and bring these criminals preying on vulnerable people to justice.

Tell the mother to contact Actionfraud - they are very helpful and will give clear instructions on what to do next.

Thank you ,that's helpful.