My father has been scammed of his life savings

[Deleted User]

Hi
I’m Wondering if any of you lovely people have any advice apologies as this is long
My father 72 I would say a vulnerable person who is naive and gullible and carer to my mother who has Alzheimer’s and Dementia was contacted by phone last year by the National Lottery Centre asking him if he wanted to join a syndicate for the Irish Lottery

He stupidly agreed and paid £700 for the year
Every two weeks or so he was then contacted by an account manager asking him if he wanted to join more syndicates for varying amounts of money
When he said he couldn’t afford it they would do a pre authorisation or a smaller amount to see what he could afford. Then they would ring back and ask to take that amount of his debit card

. I believe that this phone call was recorded but the actual hard sell call wasn’t recorded .

Over a period of a year he has used all of his life savings of around £25000 possibly more maybe slightly less I haven’t added it all up yet as I’m so upset
Completely all gone from his account

While I accept that he has been the most stupid person ever and I want to kill him 😂 he is my father and murder isn’t legal so I’m stuck with him .
So is there anything I can do I’m accepting that it’s unlikely he will ever see this money again .
But if anyone has any advice I would be hugely grateful

I am angry that his bank Lloyds who he as banked with for over 50 years never flagged up a signal payment and called or sent him a text to authorise it
I’ve checked his statement and he as never ever spent money like this in this pattern at all
Lloyds once called him into the back and refused a payment on his car insurance because they were suspicious it was fraudulent a few years ago so I’m at a lost how such large amounts were never not flagged as being unusual spending pattern
Im furious that these people were able to cold call him at his home
And I’m angry at myself that I didn’t spot it but I don’t have POA and as. It wasn’t anything obvious like a car or a big purchase I didn’t realise anything was amiss

I’m always getting texts sent to my phone to authorise payment often for under £100 so I can’t see how he never ever got a text or phone call
If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated
Good or bad

SweetPotatoPie

What company was it that actually took the money???
I have no idea what you can do but that’s absolutely disgusting that they can pray on vulnerable people like that. Can you take them to court? Somebody else may have a better idea!

SweetPotatoPie

*prey - autocorrect

[Deleted User]

The National Lottery Center in the Isle of Man hope I can say that here

By the way that not my real name on my post just in case anyone asks

SweetPotatoPie

If this is a legitimate company then I’d be speaking to a solicitor.
Have you spoken to the bank? It’s hard as he authorised the payments - hoping someone on here can advise you! X

Silvertabby

This must be a scam - even 10 tickets for each and every lottery draw doesn't come anywhere near £25K over a year.

Have you asked Lloyd's (with your father's authority) for an explanation of why they allowed these payments? Their systems must have sent up a red flag - they were quick enough to block our elderly neighbour's account when she tried to pay a (legit) plumber for her new boiler 'because she'd never spent over £2K in one go before'.

Good luck - but try not to be too hard on your dad. I'm sure he feels devastated.

[Deleted User]

I’m not being hard on him I live him dearly just wished this hadn’t happened
I’m fuming at myself for not realising but there was. outwardly obvious purchase
It was a syndicate and each time they contacted him the money required went up and up I think

[Deleted User]

That’s what I’m struggling with my DH banks with Lloyds and he is forever moaning that they refused xx payment and he has to confirm it’s legit and then do the purchase again
I’ve checked my fathers statements and apart from these payments and his car insurance he has never had any large payments go out of his account ever I’ve checked back 7 years so far and this is way out of normal transactions for his account
He’s banked with Lloyds for almost 50 years so I’m shocked that this was never picked up

chesky

If you can it might be an idea to listen on the BBC IPlayer to the radio 4 money programme which was on today at noon. They had a similar scam on and the woman who was scammed eventually got her money back from Lloyd's. not saying that will happen with your dad but you might get some useful information from it.

pphillips

Is there a way of finding out the details of the payee?

p00hsticks

chesky wrote: »

If you can it might be an idea to listen on the BBC IPlayer to the radio 4 money programme which was on today at noon. They had a similar scam on and the woman who was scammed eventually got her money back from Lloyd's. not saying that will happen with your dad but you might get some useful information from it.

Moneybox is always worth a listen, but I don't think that case was very similar - there (as I understood it), some fraudster had diverted their Vodaphone direct debit to take money from the mothers account, unnoticed by her. It wasn't picked up for a number of years until after her death as the old lady had dementia, was in a nursing home and no-one appeared to have POA / was monitoring her account.

Wherease in the OPs case it sound like the father did - at least in the beginning - authorise the payments, but has subsequently been taken advantage of.