Is your loved one a victim of elder financial abuse?
What are the clues?
We are seeing “romance scams” as the most common type of financial abuse. You may not even know they are happening unless you do a little forensic work. Here is how the typical scam might play out:
Your mother is contacted by someone who claims to be a famous person (like Tom Selleck, for example) or might claim to be a lawyer in another state. He convinces her that he will either come into a lot of money soon or is already holding money for her, and all she needs to do is send him some money. It doesn’t make sense, I know, but people fall for it every day.
She may send him a check from her account first, but all that does is stoke the furnace for him to ask for more. We have seen these con-artists convince women to get title loans on their cars and send them the money, to take out equity lines of credit and send them the money, and we saw one example where the woman was trying to sell her home and send him the money!
The only way these were stopped was because an adult child of the victim was paying attention and sought out help in shutting down the scam.
Do not be shy about getting involved in your parents’ financial affairs! That is the only way to discover these crimes before they become financial disasters!
Call us to learn how we can help you protect your loved ones (205) 390-0101