Elderly parents scammed

Wyndham

@SuzeQStan I LOVE this sentiment "Side note - they always go on about my inheritance - I would rather they blow the lot on themselves. I take pride in financial independence and glad to say I don’t need an inheritance in any form. (Other than the values m&d have taught me)"

Not sure how it will go down, but when I've had similar conversations about 'dodgy emails' with my mum, at one point I recommended Malwarebytes (other programmes are also available of course). It will look for malware and isolate it. I hope that in this case there isn't any, but you never know. In my case, my mum is happy to run this herself if she feels that it might be a good idea, so it's come across as a recommendation for a tool to help her maintain her independence, rather than me telling her what to do (which doesn't go down well!!!)

Good luck. I sympathise massively with this, and really hope you get it sorted.

wilfred30

SuzeQStan said:

@thegreenone said:
Relative sounds despicable to resort to this sort of extortion.
I really hope you can nip this quickly.

Update - I rang relative yesterday evening & no answer. So I left a VM asking them to ring me ASAP. Followed up with an email asking for the receipt for the gift card to be sent across to me. (Relative lives even further away from me than m&d)

I know that my attempts to contact have landed as DF then rang to ask me to stop ‘harassing’ relative…🙄. I am in reality unrepentant but grovelled to DF explaining I was trying to protect him & DM & the relative. In the hopes that they might understand having all evidence would surely benefit all in the long run.

Sadly conversation ended with a curt mind your own…

When I read this, two proverbs sprang to mind:

You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink and

There are none so blind as those who will not see

Sadly and, frustratingly for you, I think that you might have to take a step back and just let them get on with it.

If it were me, I would continue my relationship with my parents as normal but not with the relative in question.  She doesn't happen to be your younger sister by any chance does she?

SuzeQStan

Wyndham said:

Not sure how it will go down, but when I've had similar conversations about 'dodgy emails' with my mum, at one point I recommended Malwarebytes (other programmes are also available of course). It will look for malware and isolate it. I hope that in this case there isn't any, but you never know. In my case, my mum is happy to run this herself if she feels that it might be a good idea, so it's come across as a recommendation for a tool to help her maintain her independence, rather than me telling her what to do (which doesn't go down well!!!)

Good luck. I sympathise massively with this, and really hope you get it sorted.

Thank you so kind @Wyndham - going to let things settle a bit then make peace - good idea will look at this malwarebytes w OH - at this point happy to consider anything that might give m&d a sense of control over this situation

SuzeQStan

wilfred30 said:

Sadly and, frustratingly for you, I think that you might have to take a step back and just let them get on with it.

If it were me, I would continue my relationship with my parents as normal but not with the relative in question.  She doesn't happen to be your younger sister by any chance does she?

Thanks @wilfred30 - going to let things cool down a bit - happy to play the villain for a bit if it lets relative know that eyes are on them.  DM told me today that relative sent them a receipt for the gift card (I have doubts) and in the next breath said giving relative the money back was ok as it ‘wasn’t a fortune’ . So that’s my cue to butt out. It’s so sad when the ones who take advantage of those in latter years are their own family. I properly growled on the telephone to both m&d and I’m feeling awful about it.  Will make peace ASAP - don’t like going to bed on an argument.