My dad is a sweet kind man, but kind of… I don’t want to say “stupid” (which I agree is offensive anyway 😬)… You just can’t expect him to make good decisions for this reality. I live (in the US) on the other side of the country as him, so I can’t dote on him too closely.
He’s single and lives alone (mostly on social security alone), but goes out to meet with friends and his hobby often. He’s definitely lonely, and very much a romantic. Truly a kind soul.
Lately he’s been chatting with some women he’s never met (probably off of Facebook or something) who he’s built a “relationship” with. She claims to be a single mother who is deployed in Syria and is struggling to afford to come home.
He’s sent her money several times now (that I know of). One time to buy clothes for her child, another time to get a flight somewhere, etc., always with the claim that she’s going to come back to live with him. She’s even asked him to log into some account (not his) from his computer to transfer money to some other account. And there was even something about transferring bitcoin at one point. All the while he’s soliciting me and other for help to send her. It’s so obviously a scam, and while my dad doesn’t have a lot of money to lose, I don’t want him to ruin what he has for a scam!
Other than this issue, he’s actually very successful at living alone and having a happy life. I have no interest in controlling him or his finances in any legal sense.
I’ve reverse image searched a photo he sent me of her, but nothing came up. How can I convince him this is a scam? I’ve already tried to convince him, but he believes her. He’s going to end up broke and heartbroken.
TL;DR: My dad is in love with a scammer. How can I stop my dad from being scammed?
4 comments
Have you straight-up told him this is a scam? I get you don’t want to be controlling, but you need to be super direct and tell him he is for sure getting scammed. Look up some resources and news coverage of these types of scam to have in your back pocket.
It can be very difficult – almost impossible – to disentangle a loved one from this.
Will he watch videos or news stories about romance scams?
Pretty sure the US army (or maybe another branch) has warnings about this exact scam. No deployed member “struggles to afford to come home” – they don’t even get the option to book a home flight on their own. They’re transported there and back, it’s a fucking deployment ffs.
> She claims to be a single mother who is deployed in Syria and is struggling to afford to come home.
Ugh, try and show him all the scam resources, such an obvious scam