Scam on my old dad

hollydays

So, op , what have you done?

ceewash

Will ring him again today and repeat my concerns. Brother hopefully will go round today to speak to him as well.

elsien

ThumbRemote wrote: »

It appears he doesn't even realise he's been scammed. I can't see this ending well.

Go to his house and surreptitiously break his phone. In the interim while he tries to work out what's gone wrong, get his number changed. At least that will stop the same person phoning back.

Oh for heaven's sake. My mother is 78 and would be rightly furious if I pulled a stunt like that on her. If someone has capacity (or even if they don't) you can't just go marching into their lives changing things as you see fit. even if it does come from a place of concern.

ceewash

Thank you for that comment. It is difficult to force people to do something they don't want to. I have explained the risks and will have to leave it with him. If it was me I wouldn't appreciate someone coming in cutting plugs off and changing phone numbers. It's about educating him about how these things work. There has been lots of useful advice on here. Thank you. I'll post tomorrow and update on how things go. Hopefully this is a warning to people who have elderly parents to talk to them about this scam before it happens.

Mr.Generous

Even if he does get cleaned out can I fore warn you not to expect any help from the police. My dad lost £30k. It was a family member. We know who.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

ceewash wrote: »

Thank you for that comment. It is difficult to force people to do something they don't want to. I have explained the risks and will have to leave it with him. If it was me I wouldn't appreciate someone coming in cutting plugs off and changing phone numbers. It's about educating him about how these things work. There has been lots of useful advice on here. Thank you. I'll post tomorrow and update on how things go. Hopefully this is a warning to people who have elderly parents to talk to them about this scam before it happens.

It depends how much money you are talking about.

If he has £200 in his account then maybe you can leave it alone. If he has £100,000 then I would be doing a bit more than "leaving it with him", as there is a very real chance that somebody will steal the lot. Cutting the plug off his phone would be a small thing in those circumstances.