Help, family member being scammed. What to do?

Hi everyone.

I just found your site, and hope you all might be able to give some advice because we have no ideas. My best bud and I are trying to figure out what to do about this situation: His mother is in the middle of a scam.

A contact at the post office in her small town alerted my pal about some sketchy money orders. He went down, dragged his mom to the post office, and intercepted the mail. It contained about $4K of her money and probably other people's money. Cash and Prepaid credit cards. She might be a "middle man". The awesome person in the post office says he/she can "lose" her outgoing mail for a while but eventually it must go out.

After snooping around he figured she's lost at least $38K, she denies it all. Obviously we suspect she might have mental illness because he can't convince her people are stealing her life savings and getting her involved in a crime but she seems sharp otherwise. Does anyone know what to do? Are there resources available out here? If someone knows of a list of stuff to do to get power of attorney over a seemingly sane person I'd love to see it.

Any help would be awesome! Thanks all.

Hi badnews !
Welcome to Scamwarners!
I'm really sorry to hear about this situation with your friends mother. Does he have any emails or more info on how she got involved with the scammer? This would help in us giving advice on helping her.

Welcome badnews!

Your friend's mother is probably not suffering from a mental illness; more likely it is a phenomenon like being addicted to gambling. She has already spent so much money on the scam she can no longer accept the truth because it would be devastating - she is in denial.

Now it is important that your friend tries to keep the confidence of his mother. He should't confront her by accusing her too harshly; rather he should make her understand that no matter what he will always be a loving son.

This way, he might convince her to show us her email correspondence, and he might invite her to read examples of scams on our site so she will realise it is a notorious pattern the scammer is following.

Depending on the state where you live, you could possibly file an Elderly Abuse report. Although his mother may be coherent and seem mentally stable, it could be decided that she needs a guardian to assist in her financial well-being. I would suggest checking with your state's Department of Children and Families to inquire on a contact with the Elder Abuse area.