Need advice!

Hello,
My mom has been chatting with guys on the internet for awhile now. During this time, she has came across quite a few scammers. Fortunately, she has never been fully scammed out of money or anything. Currently, she is chatting with someone new on Yahoo messenger. My sister and I check her email account, so we read the emails and messages he sends to her (I know it is wrong, but it is the only way we can make sure she isn't doing anything foolish). We also uploaded his picture on Google image search, and we are positive he is a scammer. This kind of situation has happened many times before with the previous guys. Whenever she starts chatting with someone new, she tells us about him, we tell her that he is probably a scammer, and later, she finds out his is a scammer. However, she has not told us about this guy yet, and we do not want her knowing that we look at her mail. What should we do? She knows all of the signs of a scammer, and even though this guy had to go out of country for work (like all of the other ones), she does not think he is a scammer.

Also, I noticed that he asked for her mother's maiden name (he said he was looking at horoscopes and needed her mother's maiden name or something). What can he do with that kind of information?

Welcome Sparrow! I'm sorry about this situation.

With the maiden name, the scammer can hijack your mother's email account, for instance. He pretends to be your mother, "has forgotten the password", and is asked for the answer to the test question. Most people use "mother's maiden name", and bingo! Then he could send emails in your mom's name to all her contacts: "Help, I'm stranded in Spain, send me money!"

Even worse, if he has more information, this may be the last bit he needs to access her bank account, depending on the rules in your country.

Try to keep your mother's trust. Don't accuse her, make her understand that you love her even though she is wrong. Maybe then you can convince her to change her password and the test question. And try to find out if she gave him some details about her bank account.

This is a tough one because confronting your mother about it means telling her you are watching her email account. Not knowing your mother I cannot presume how she would take it but I would guess she will be less than pleased about the invasion of privacy. It may also make it harder to monitor future activities.

Please check your private messages you have a new one.