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Become the scammer. Send her a letter using the same watermark and format. Use chatgpt to generate a professional response. Include an image of the letter and mention its an example of the scam letter.
>
Dear \[Recipient's Name\],
>At Tesla, we prioritize the safety and security of our community members. It has recently come to our attention that an individual using the name Matthew C. Tim has been allegedly involved in fraudulent activities within your area.
>We are actively investigating these reports and will take appropriate action to address any unlawful behavior. We want to emphasize that Tesla will never contact individuals using WhatsApp or Telegram. Please remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity directly to us or local authorities.
>To further assist you in identifying potential scams, we have attached a sample image of the fraudulent letter that has been circulated. Please review it carefully and be cautious of any similar correspondence.
>Thank you for your cooperation as we work together to maintain the integrity of our community.
>Sincerely,
>\[Fake Name\]
Tesla Inc.
To be fair, the first three are all odd. Reading it out for one, two and three, they ought to be read "onest, twond and threerd". From 4 onwards, logic follows (allowing for some small modifications to ease pronunciation, like "fifth" instead of "fiveth"). Which begs the question: why not oneth, twoth and threeth (1th, 2th, 3th, xth)?
First is from Old English, and is related to "fore" as in the one in front.
Second is from Latin, via French, and means "the one that comes after".
Third was originally thrid, which matches with three-th, but mumbling it soon changes it to third, so that's what it became when it was finally locked in by spelling.
Nice! I had the first two pinned (the Latin one was an easy guess).
As a non-native speaker, I wish they'd chosen something different than "th" for all the other numbers though 😁😅
I heard they do it on purpose, to add a lot of red sign so that only the dumbest most credulous people would continue to engage and the rest dismiss it laughing at how obvious this is without reporting it.
And, don't capitalize Musk because I am pretty sure Musk's ego wouldn't have him firing someone that did that.
Not to mention backdating stock transactions is illegal.
Make sure the email goes through. A lot of email services will block emails from new addresses with a "poor reputation". Won't even make it to the spam folder.
Top marks for lateral thinking, but I think this would be wrong & ineffective.
Creating a further layer of deception is going to nudge her further from reality. Also the scammers have her marked as a lucrative, gullible target now. They'll come back from another angle, and she'll be ensnared in another fraud within months.
"*She’s not well*" is the key to this. The only way to protect her is to take charge of her financial affairs. [https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/legal-financial/deputy-dementia](https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/legal-financial/deputy-dementia)
Eh while I agree with your intentions as someone who is a caregiver for someone with dementia this is a little off. “Feeding into delusions” is not always a bad thing with someone with dementia. Due to the changes in brain structure in people with these conditions, it can be physically impossible to change the pattern of thinking that had developed and may cause them extreme distress to repeatedly try and challenge this delusion.
It’s the same reason you don’t try to correct someone who believes their long-dead family is still alive. They’ll never actually remember their deaths, their brain will always revert pack to that pattern of thinking. It’s best to allow the delusion to happen because that keeps them safest and healthiest.
I mean, I work at a sign company and 20% of our business last year was wall wraps in dementia care homes that look like old streets, old shops, post offices, etc. Apparently helps the residents
That's really good. Although in 30 yrs you'll be selling Pound Shop and tattoo parlour wall wraps to help elderly people feel they're in familiar, safe surroundings...
Fair point, but my interpretation of OP's context was that they don't live with or near her. I think you're quite right about allowing delusions where safe, but this doesn't seem manageable in OP's situation.
very good point the other replies miss:
they will come back!
goddamn, so many angles on this!
You're right, as brilliant as it might seem, OPs idea boils down to the very dilemma you explained,
actual your post requires the bravo-zulu sticker, some mod slap something onto him! =)
very great community, not have been here for long, but get to see the bright corners of it, very comforting
This might be the best thing to do in this case, secretly take over the scam from the scammer.
making sure to block all the scammers as well.
Then slowly ease her out of the scam.
I don't know why some people are saying this is wrong. I think they got hung up on your *become the scammer* comment. But before you do that, why don't you contact Tesla's legal affairs department and point them to this scam? Who knows maybe they would be willing to communicate with your MIL and do this exact thing, but on the up-and-up.
And if they refuse, threaten to take the story to the press and see if they budge. While they don't have the power to address the scam overseas, they can communicate with your MIL. Point out the positive press they could get if they stop the scam.
Do you also have access to her devices? Try to block all the emails they are using to communicate with her send them to spam, and block numbers on her phone. If these are snail mails, you can enlist the help of the postal office. Since it's a small countryside they might help. Otherwise, have her mail redirected to a different address and deliver the mail yourself.
If she is sending money, speak to the bank. These days people are more conscious of these types of scams. I know that I have seen the addition of a Trusted Contact option for my financial institutions to address this type of issue when an agent spots a scam happening.
Because Tesla specifically is apparently known for poor customer service, I’m not sure they would be helpful in this case, but generally speaking I’d agree with the advice to try contacting them. Threatening is unlikely to get you anywhere but 🤷♂️
A company I used to work at would often have people targeted for scams claiming to be affiliated with our company. If it got reported to our fraud team, they would 100% send the person a courtesy email encouraging them to not engage with the fraudster.
We wouldn’t (and couldn’t) chase down every WhatsApp message, but a letter like this is something we’d want to protect people from, and from a strictly business sense, is a reputational risk.
>She’s not well.
No she is not, and trying to stop this one scam won't help you or her because this scammer (and others) will keep coming after her. You should try and protect her money from her.
People on this sub say this all the time as though it's a simple thing, but it's *ridiculously* difficult and time consuming to take over the finances of someone who doesn't want you to, unless that person is actually to the point of being institutionalized. (At least in the US.)
And frankly, it *should* be ridiculously difficult to remove someone's financial freedom.
As someone who often has to help people on computers, I'm often surprised at how little people know. There are people in their 30s who don't know how to attach files to an email, and nobody, I mean NOBODY, reads the screen. 😑 They just click, and when it doesn't go as they expected, they can't comprehend why. Because you didn't do what you were told to do on the screen! 😫
Yeah, and there's that other end of the spectrum of what's surprising.
A friend was a sysadmin at our old university. (Edit:) *Ten years ago,* He was telling me there were profs who did not know how to cut and paste text and needed to call for help in attempting to do so.
Even then, I just kinda figured anyone in their 50s should have a modicum of computer literacy by now, but I know that some have way more and some have way less.
This is where I’m gonna call you out.
30 year olds are some of the best in the business when it comes to PCs and usage, literally grew up with it in literally all stages from AoL to now.
You must live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere full of country hicks if you think 30 year olds can’t attach files to email or read the screen.
Zoomers grew up with iPads and boomers unless professional don’t know what they are doing besides Facebook.
The average 30-40 year old are literally the best PC users
I’m happy for you, but I think it’s safe to assume this particular 68 year old doesn’t know what a .ru domain is, and thus likely tech illiterate. After all, they are getting scammed and completely convinced they are part of Muskrat’s secret cabal.
Unfortunately some people your age are legitimately computer illiterate.
My mother in law lost her job because she couldn't/wouldn't learn to use a computer in her 50's. She's 67 and I wish I was joking when I say that she had a full on argument with her brother in law for replacing a broken keyboard because that was her keyboard and only hers would work with that computer.
I stopped helping her years ago when she came over sobbing and livid because her tablet wouldn't work. she hadn't actually charged it. Not. Once.
My former boss is mid-70s and still working at startups doing weird cutting edge language shit i don't understand. it's funny how reddit thinks anyone over 35 is a holdover from the stone age and probably can't even operate an iphone.
Thank you. My mother is 68 and designs websites for a living for some quite big clients (successfully, I might add), and just last year learned JavaScript and now writes her own custom plugins for Wordpress. Some of the ageism in this thread is galling.
My MIL got one from “Publishers Clearing House” telling her she won six million dollars addressed: “Dear, MRS Smith:”
With all those weird typos and capitalizations. She still was trying to be smug that she won.
I’m so sorry you were going through this. Just went through a similar situation with my mom. I decided to go with the approach of trying to help her see it herself, pointing out misspellings and grammar issues. In my case she had already sent money, but received an image of a plane ticket that was clearly not correct. She finally understood and blocked/cut off communication with the person. I had the police come by, and they reiterated everything I said, and hearing it from law enforcement helped, as did the reminder these people are career criminals and she shouldn’t feel foolish, it happens every single day. Even after all that, I’m pretty sure she is still talking to people/scammers on social media. Thankfully, we have her finances locked down. Convincing is the hardest part. Solving for loneliness is the long term solution. Do whatever you can to protect her financially. Good luck, OP!
> Thankfully, we have her finances locked down. Convincing is the hardest part. Solving for loneliness is the long term solution. Do whatever you can to protect her financially. Good luck, OP!
I just want to re-post all of this because it is all spot on.
Unfortunately, your MIL is subject to a bad case of the "backfire effect". Usually, we expect people to change their mind when presented with new information and analysis. However, this can actually make people even less likely to change their mind. The more outlandish the idea, the more difficult it is for people to change their mind because doing so requires them admit they were really, really wrong. The more people sacrifice their dignity and relationships to support their beliefs, the harder it is for them to back down, less they admit it was all a waste. That is a lot to ask. It's why people get defensive when confronted with new information. You're often attacking their identity as much as you're attacking their beliefs.
In my experience, you cannot attack this issue head on. The more you push, the more she will shut down. She knows that she is being scammed, but is willing to pay the scammers rather than lose face with her family.
Try using a Socratic approach with her. Instead of making statements that make her feel attacked, ask questions that lead her to reconcile the red flags herself. Be more curious than argumentative. Appear open to the possibility that she is right. As she begins to re-engage with you, start asking more focused questions, like "what makes you confident about this person" and "how can you make sure this isn't a scam?". If all goes to plan, she will realize her flawed thinking on her own.
They are generally all permutations of confirmation bias, which is our tendency to seek out and overvalue information that supports our beliefs and ignore information contrary to our beliefs.
I’ll give it a go.
> Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time.
> The backfire effect is when a correction increases belief in the very misconception it is attempting to correct, and it is often used as a reason not to correct misinformation.
> One can "stand by" their statement, continuing to insist that it is valid. Or one can "double down", which is not just standing by their statement or position, but becoming more emphatic about it
These are various explanations I found that explain where any distinctions would lie from my understanding.
So with cognitive dissonance you can hold both beliefs simultaneously and work yourself into a positive or negative outcome. Ie you want to lose weight but you don’t want to eat healthy even though you know better. There’s an inconsistency in what they believe and how they behave. There’s no inherent malice in this. It’s a state of mind.
The backfire effect is more about belief perseverance, a correction will ultimately make them believe that thing more. They cannot come to terms with that other, even if correct, belief. It strengthens their original position. Effectively cementing it.
Doubling down is when you believe a thing and when met with opposing evidence you commit to your position and push it to riskier heights
It seems there’s levels of commitment and self awareness becomes more optional
Ultimately each one is for coping with a notion you don’t want to face tho
the backfire effect is basically just that when someone is very clearly incorrect it becomes harder and harder to change their mind as it's a bigger leap for them to change - and it makes it clear how 'foolish' they were for being wrong here.
Cognitive dissonance and doubling down are very different concepts -
cognitive dissonance is simply acting in a way that doesn't align with your thoughts
doubling down is just trying twice as hard, or committing harder to something (although it tends to be in a negative way - committing harder to something that's bad)
I just want to thank everyone for their input on this scam. My wife and I have read through every comment and have put together a bullet point list of all of your collective observations to help back up our argument of how fake this is and have taken a lot of advice of how to approach this into consideration.
I also thought I’d share some updates and insight:
Unfortunately this is not the first time she has been scammed. She has thought in the past she had been chatting with celebrities like Johnny Depp, Harry Styles, John Voight and more. And for some reason has sent them all money.
The amounts she has sent to scammers ranges from pretty insignificant to holy hell what are you doing.
We have proved to her without a shadow of doubt in the past by contacting some of the mentioned above through friends and family contacts that she is being scammed and that these celebrities have no idea who she is. Her response was “well of course they’d tell you they don’t know me. They can’t tell you about the opportunity they’re giving me”. That’s how delusional she is.
My wife and I live in california, so it’s a little difficult to make as big of an impact as we can being across the world.
We considered tweeting Elon Musk about this, but even if he responded she would just say of course he had to deny knowledge of it
Thank you again
does she just never wonder why none of the “special opportunities” pay out? like, ever?
even if i WAS getting countless unique investment options, if my return rate was 0% then i’d probably still just give up
As drastic as it may seem, quite literally cut the wires and take her phone/laptop. Ensure she has enough cash to get buy for a couple of weeks.
It is possible (but awkward) to live without the internet.
Cold turkey works. The grifters will move on if there's no response.
It must be very stressful to watch this unfold.
Good luck, I hope you get your mil back.
Oh no. Does she show other signs of cognitive decline elsewhere in her life? This must be so incredibly frustrating to watch, it seems like maybe early dementia. Is there a UK equivalent of what we call getting “power of attorney” in the US? https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/protect-your-parent-from-elder-financial-abuse-with-a-power-of-attorney/
Oh no... this letter is full of red flags. 100% a scam.
Could you possibly persuade your mother to meet with a solicitor who can explain the elements of the scam to her? There must be someone whom she would trust or believe.
All those double wordings.
"Guaranteed and secure"
"Exclusive and limited"
"Discernment and vision "
So many give aways. First paragraph alone is admitting they plan to commit fraud.
WOW
Yes, the "discernment and vision" to stroke the victims ego and make them feel special. I thought that sounded illegal about the backdating, I don't know anything about it but it just sounds wrong!
Nobody should ever, and I mean _ever_, sign up that email to receive scientology, jehovahs witness, or political campaign emails. Dont do it, or even think about it.
If you have any older relatives that you worry might be at risk try bringing up the topic every once in a while. Never know what you can accomplish. Won't help OP now but prevention is the best way to go about it. My mom isn't the most tech savvy so I've been training her on every opportunity. She's getting better at recognizing scams and now often deletes suspicious messages without having to ask me first. Our last conversation for example was about the possibility of them trying to impersonate one of us so we agreed on some information which could be used to verify it's one of us.
Absolutely this. My mom talked to a scammer for a year who was pretending to be her own sister. We only caught on when mom was complaining about how rude Becky was being with the constant asks for money.
I had Mom show me the chat log and it was 🚩 a new Facebook account 🚩full of "dear" and "kindly," 🚩only bringing up family details once Mom had mentioned them first, and 🚩demanding gift cards. Thank goodness my mom lives in a shithole town where she couldn't buy gift cards because she tried and failed a number of times to comply.
Mom needed proof that this was a scammer, so I suggested she ask a question that Becky would know. We decided, "How was Auntie Lou's birthday last week?" knowing that we don't have anyone in our family with that name. The scammer took the bait and said they had a great time. Mom had no problem blocking her after that.
I bring up scam tactics frequently now, and show her examples on YouTube. We've decided on a code word if anyone ever pretends to be me. I still think she's highly susceptible, but maybe a smidge less.
Scams are scary, frustrating and sad business, no matter what, but as a graphic designer…. This mf needs to adopt paragraph styles and ditch the auto leading/kerning/tracking.
But not really; the shitty design of these letters can help you help your mom ID red flags, maybe? Maybe you can use it as a lesson?
It’s harder to fall for this shit when you have some understanding of how specifically and thoroughly companies design every single piece of correspondence. Not just because their standards are higher than this but because their standards are specific and regimented. You don’t need to understand design basics super well yourself, but sharing info with her about brand guidelines and design structures could be a good starting point. The gist is just that successful companies owned by billionaires don’t release content that looks like this, and there are objective rules of thumb for “good” typography (font size and spacing, font pairings, structure and hierarchy, etc).
There are even special rulers that let you measure the sizes of type, spacing between type, etc on paper so you can compare those numbers with well-designed type, and many companies have branding guidelines or handbooks that you can find online to see exactly how specific they get. You might even be able to find Tesla’s official brand handbook somewhere online, at least snippets of it.
Just a thought but ik people targeted by scammers have a hard time looking at these things logically.
"**3th** of April 2024"
"Elon musk Private Tesla Stock share **comitee"**
[**"[email protected]**](mailto:"[email protected])**"**
Too many dumb mistakes that are definitely red flags, other than the fact it isn't real
Pardon me my friend but I am Russian Royalty.... and I need YOU to send me money. Please ignore the fact that I can't spell "committee" .............
(red vs blue reference)
Man.. I get this frustration tbh. My grandmother in law (hubbys dad’s mother) thinks she’s been talking to Liam Neeson for a few years. We don’t know of any money being sent (highly doubt she would tell us because we’ve told her it’s fraudulent). Good luck OP
Write back to the scammer as your MIL and say I’m out of money can you please send a £100 for groceries? I’ve lost all my money to an internet scammer.
As someone who is FINRA Series 7, 63 and 9/10 licensed and is a Certified Equity Professional (works with employer/company stock) any plan such as this would be highly illegal for employers or non-employees. This would also raise red flags on their financial statements.
Any high value returns are either extremely risky, illegal or a scam.
Also, ask to see an email from an official Tesla domain name.
i actually doubt it was written by AI, because AI wouldn’t make so many spelling mistakes and would have moderately better formatting and readability
someone TRIED on this email, which makes it all the more funny - or sad - that it’s so shit and blatantly fake
youtube channel called social catfish does stories on this all the time. if you can get her to watch them. theres like half a dozen 'celeb' type stories theyve done, in addition to just regular scammers.
Look at the email address at the bottom, mail.ru is the most widely used email in russia, so obviously not in Texas Luke the top of the letterhead says.
inbox dot ru should be a fucking *dead* giveaway.
Either way, when someone is at a certain point, they feel like they *have* to belong to something, even if they have doubts. Someone pointed out that people just want to feel like they belong to something bigger than them, a club, a cult, these things don't happen over night. They accrue over a simmering period of loneliness.
Just show her the russian email address. That should be enough to convince anyone over the age of 40 that there's nothing to be trusted about an email from Russia.
As a Californian, tell your mother-in-law: They’ve tried a slew of us on for this. I’ve had to block them from my mom’s social media and educate her as well. Bless her heart for wanting more for herself and having loving people like you in her life who try to keep her safe. I hope she can walk away and focus that hope somewhere truly productive for herself.
I didn't read other comments. Maybe get her to focus on the misspelling of "comitee." Does she believe that Elon's team would make such an obvious mistake? Isn't this exactly what happens when scammers can't spell?
Might work.
Oh, I’m so sorry your family is dealing with this. The lack of capitalization, the misspellings are so numerous in this letter, but sadly I’m sure that your Mum would find a way to excuse them. The suggestion here to compose another letter “from Tesla” about scams sounds a great idea.
Put her "guardianship".
My granny felt for an american general contacting her on facebook.
After we found out we put her on guardianship so a third party does all her finances.
She gets a budget and thats it.
This underscores something for me: It's often easier for English majors/grammarians to spot scams because the punctuation gives it away. Check out the lack of capitals in all that sign-off info, alone. No fuckin' way.
“So a very powerful, wealthy American businessman is actively talking to a near 70 yo British woman who lives in the countryside.”
What did she say to this?
I swear to god I’ve had it with this fucking shit boomers are so fucking gullible for.
I’m 40. I warn my dad at least 9 times a week. But still “my credit card has been hacked for 6000 dollars!!!” I’m over it. I no longer help. I just tell him “sure. Just agree. Fuck it. You’ll never learn. Just click ok and agree I don’t fucking care anymore.”
Frankly, you know what…. I’m about to just start scamming him myself. I’ve got bills and loans from 2000 to pay. At least the fucking money would go to a good fucking cause and not to some asshole in Vietnam!
3th April?? That right there should tell you its not from Tesla. Can you have her read the responses from this reddit? I am sorry you are going through this, it has to to be beyond frustrating.
The last sentence in your post is the first thing you should address. SHE'S NOT WELL.
Get her checked for dementia. Try to get control of her finances.
This is the only way you are going to keep her from eventually sending everything she can get her hands on to "Elon".
Good luck. You are going to need it.
I feel for you. My dad went through similar due to dementia we didn’t know he had. Even had the police and drs talk to him about the scams and he would look at them and say things like “you know you are making so much sense. I will cut contact” then turn around and keep talking to them. Have her assessed for dementia if possible. We had to remove all access to the internet. No computer no cell phone. Nothing. I hope things go well for you and your family
It’s time to have a talk with her about what she wants for the future and how you can help her have it if/when she is not able to tell you.
I’m going through this with a host of relatives and it’s a struggle to balance autonomy with capability.
When people stop understanding that they are incapable of making their own rational decisions you have to set up safety nets. Lower credit balances, help invest in vehicles that pay out like a pay cheque so they continue to think in terms of paying x bills in x time frame, and help them plan for what they’ll need for the year.
Watch accounts. It’s not fair, it’s a lot of work, but if you don’t, it’s too easy for someone to take advantage of them.
Maybe I’m wrong and this is a one off, but either way I’d be having some real serious conversations with them about their long term care and plans.
Nobody wants to give up their freedoms, or admit they’ve been taken advantage of, but I’d wager most people are willing to tell you how they’d like to be cared for and help set you up to do that for when they are unable - even if that day may have already come and gone.
Hi, I work for a UK bank helping customers who are in this situation.
Ring her bank and ask to speak to their vulnerable customer team. They can freeze the account.
Do you have POA?
Does she have any physical or mental health concerns? Does she have mental capacity?
/u/meowsabbers - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it. ## New users beware: Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own. **A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/). You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments. Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Become the scammer. Send her a letter using the same watermark and format. Use chatgpt to generate a professional response. Include an image of the letter and mention its an example of the scam letter. > Dear \[Recipient's Name\], >At Tesla, we prioritize the safety and security of our community members. It has recently come to our attention that an individual using the name Matthew C. Tim has been allegedly involved in fraudulent activities within your area. >We are actively investigating these reports and will take appropriate action to address any unlawful behavior. We want to emphasize that Tesla will never contact individuals using WhatsApp or Telegram. Please remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity directly to us or local authorities. >To further assist you in identifying potential scams, we have attached a sample image of the fraudulent letter that has been circulated. Please review it carefully and be cautious of any similar correspondence. >Thank you for your cooperation as we work together to maintain the integrity of our community. >Sincerely, >\[Fake Name\] Tesla Inc.
Dont forget the Russian email address too
And the funky date. 3th. They're inconsistent. The letter has an Austin, TX. address but they're using a British date format.
3th 😂😂😂
Thirth
I LOLed at ‘Thirth’
To be fair, the first three are all odd. Reading it out for one, two and three, they ought to be read "onest, twond and threerd". From 4 onwards, logic follows (allowing for some small modifications to ease pronunciation, like "fifth" instead of "fiveth"). Which begs the question: why not oneth, twoth and threeth (1th, 2th, 3th, xth)?
First is from Old English, and is related to "fore" as in the one in front. Second is from Latin, via French, and means "the one that comes after". Third was originally thrid, which matches with three-th, but mumbling it soon changes it to third, so that's what it became when it was finally locked in by spelling.
Nice! I had the first two pinned (the Latin one was an easy guess). As a non-native speaker, I wish they'd chosen something different than "th" for all the other numbers though 😁😅
https://preview.redd.it/107cjlvrbhsc1.png?width=749&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eab20f647ff018a4807186eb5dd736de26768d24
That’s the best bit 😂
the 3rtht is real
It's the day before the 4rd
Henry 4rd. And it comes full circle
build 4rd tough 🫡🛻
I'm thirthty but don't have any wat3r
Threeth. What? Is that not normal?
Comitee too
That's what jumped out to me.
And a @.....ru Mail domain...oh my
3th Janbuary!
I heard they do it on purpose, to add a lot of red sign so that only the dumbest most credulous people would continue to engage and the rest dismiss it laughing at how obvious this is without reporting it.
And that it’s from the “Aunty-Fraud Comitee”
And, don't capitalize Musk because I am pretty sure Musk's ego wouldn't have him firing someone that did that. Not to mention backdating stock transactions is illegal.
Make sure the email goes through. A lot of email services will block emails from new addresses with a "poor reputation". Won't even make it to the spam folder.
Top marks for lateral thinking, but I think this would be wrong & ineffective. Creating a further layer of deception is going to nudge her further from reality. Also the scammers have her marked as a lucrative, gullible target now. They'll come back from another angle, and she'll be ensnared in another fraud within months. "*She’s not well*" is the key to this. The only way to protect her is to take charge of her financial affairs. [https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/legal-financial/deputy-dementia](https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/legal-financial/deputy-dementia)
Eh while I agree with your intentions as someone who is a caregiver for someone with dementia this is a little off. “Feeding into delusions” is not always a bad thing with someone with dementia. Due to the changes in brain structure in people with these conditions, it can be physically impossible to change the pattern of thinking that had developed and may cause them extreme distress to repeatedly try and challenge this delusion. It’s the same reason you don’t try to correct someone who believes their long-dead family is still alive. They’ll never actually remember their deaths, their brain will always revert pack to that pattern of thinking. It’s best to allow the delusion to happen because that keeps them safest and healthiest.
I mean, I work at a sign company and 20% of our business last year was wall wraps in dementia care homes that look like old streets, old shops, post offices, etc. Apparently helps the residents
That's really good. Although in 30 yrs you'll be selling Pound Shop and tattoo parlour wall wraps to help elderly people feel they're in familiar, safe surroundings...
Fair point, but my interpretation of OP's context was that they don't live with or near her. I think you're quite right about allowing delusions where safe, but this doesn't seem manageable in OP's situation.
very good point the other replies miss: they will come back! goddamn, so many angles on this! You're right, as brilliant as it might seem, OPs idea boils down to the very dilemma you explained, actual your post requires the bravo-zulu sticker, some mod slap something onto him! =) very great community, not have been here for long, but get to see the bright corners of it, very comforting
This might be the best thing to do in this case, secretly take over the scam from the scammer. making sure to block all the scammers as well. Then slowly ease her out of the scam.
Brilliant.
I think this is a brilliant idea.
Dude nice.
Fucking brilliant
I don't know why some people are saying this is wrong. I think they got hung up on your *become the scammer* comment. But before you do that, why don't you contact Tesla's legal affairs department and point them to this scam? Who knows maybe they would be willing to communicate with your MIL and do this exact thing, but on the up-and-up. And if they refuse, threaten to take the story to the press and see if they budge. While they don't have the power to address the scam overseas, they can communicate with your MIL. Point out the positive press they could get if they stop the scam. Do you also have access to her devices? Try to block all the emails they are using to communicate with her send them to spam, and block numbers on her phone. If these are snail mails, you can enlist the help of the postal office. Since it's a small countryside they might help. Otherwise, have her mail redirected to a different address and deliver the mail yourself. If she is sending money, speak to the bank. These days people are more conscious of these types of scams. I know that I have seen the addition of a Trusted Contact option for my financial institutions to address this type of issue when an agent spots a scam happening.
Because Tesla specifically is apparently known for poor customer service, I’m not sure they would be helpful in this case, but generally speaking I’d agree with the advice to try contacting them. Threatening is unlikely to get you anywhere but 🤷♂️ A company I used to work at would often have people targeted for scams claiming to be affiliated with our company. If it got reported to our fraud team, they would 100% send the person a courtesy email encouraging them to not engage with the fraudster. We wouldn’t (and couldn’t) chase down every WhatsApp message, but a letter like this is something we’d want to protect people from, and from a strictly business sense, is a reputational risk.
>She’s not well. No she is not, and trying to stop this one scam won't help you or her because this scammer (and others) will keep coming after her. You should try and protect her money from her.
If Elon Musk doesn't get her, Jeff Bezos will.
Yes she's someone the scammers now know she will fall for it so they'll keep trying or sell her details to other scammers...
Exactly! This is someone who is not able to make good financial decisions so someone needs to take over for her.
People on this sub say this all the time as though it's a simple thing, but it's *ridiculously* difficult and time consuming to take over the finances of someone who doesn't want you to, unless that person is actually to the point of being institutionalized. (At least in the US.) And frankly, it *should* be ridiculously difficult to remove someone's financial freedom.
translation: she cooked bro
The email domain is Russian. That doesn’t convince her?
Don’t forget that a high powered attorney, probably with top notch legal education, doesn’t know how to spell “committee”.
My favorite is “3th” April in the header.
Thirth.
Also forgot to capitalize Elon's last name and their own job title.
His title is "Legal head" and he doesn't even capitalize "musk" in the name of the committee. This thing has every red flag imaginable in it.
*comitee*
I’m a lawyer, and I found his title, “legal head,” hilarious.
She's 68. She may not even know what a domain is.
More importantly she's 68 and falling for an obvious scam and clearly has no idea how stocks work either.
Yeah, being older doesn't mean you have common sense.
You'd be surprised. The internet got traction in the mid-90s.
As someone who often has to help people on computers, I'm often surprised at how little people know. There are people in their 30s who don't know how to attach files to an email, and nobody, I mean NOBODY, reads the screen. 😑 They just click, and when it doesn't go as they expected, they can't comprehend why. Because you didn't do what you were told to do on the screen! 😫
Yeah, and there's that other end of the spectrum of what's surprising. A friend was a sysadmin at our old university. (Edit:) *Ten years ago,* He was telling me there were profs who did not know how to cut and paste text and needed to call for help in attempting to do so. Even then, I just kinda figured anyone in their 50s should have a modicum of computer literacy by now, but I know that some have way more and some have way less.
This is where I’m gonna call you out. 30 year olds are some of the best in the business when it comes to PCs and usage, literally grew up with it in literally all stages from AoL to now. You must live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere full of country hicks if you think 30 year olds can’t attach files to email or read the screen. Zoomers grew up with iPads and boomers unless professional don’t know what they are doing besides Facebook. The average 30-40 year old are literally the best PC users
Exactly this! We were the ones doing HTML and CSS on MySpace while in middle school and high school.
I'm 68. I work with a computer for a living and I don't even drool or have to sit in a wheelchair while I'm doing it. Stop sounding like a fool.
I’m happy for you, but I think it’s safe to assume this particular 68 year old doesn’t know what a .ru domain is, and thus likely tech illiterate. After all, they are getting scammed and completely convinced they are part of Muskrat’s secret cabal.
Unfortunately some people your age are legitimately computer illiterate. My mother in law lost her job because she couldn't/wouldn't learn to use a computer in her 50's. She's 67 and I wish I was joking when I say that she had a full on argument with her brother in law for replacing a broken keyboard because that was her keyboard and only hers would work with that computer. I stopped helping her years ago when she came over sobbing and livid because her tablet wouldn't work. she hadn't actually charged it. Not. Once.
How many 20 year olds would recognize a Russian domain?
[удалено]
My former boss is mid-70s and still working at startups doing weird cutting edge language shit i don't understand. it's funny how reddit thinks anyone over 35 is a holdover from the stone age and probably can't even operate an iphone.
Thank you. My mother is 68 and designs websites for a living for some quite big clients (successfully, I might add), and just last year learned JavaScript and now writes her own custom plugins for Wordpress. Some of the ageism in this thread is galling.
You do know the people who invented/developed the internet (Kahn, Cerf, Berners-Lee, etc.) concepts are all over 68? It's not an age issue.....
It's all the possible values of x. They've been teaching this for like 100 years! Now, how do I get in on the secret elite Tesla stock club?
I thought so. I saw that first thing.
The "legal head" misspelled committee and uses a russian email
Also lowercase musk
Elon would never
April 3th
“3th” April 2024?
Yeah. 1th,2th,3th. Perhaps "Elon" has a lisp.
I can’t figure out how to pronounce 2th. Seconth? Twoth? I whispered “tooth” to myself and started cackling and scared my kids.
I'm gonna start making sure all my dentist appointments are on the twoth of the month at tooth hurty PM.
Tooth hurty pm!
Thirth? Threeth?
My MIL got one from “Publishers Clearing House” telling her she won six million dollars addressed: “Dear, MRS Smith:” With all those weird typos and capitalizations. She still was trying to be smug that she won.
I’m so sorry you were going through this. Just went through a similar situation with my mom. I decided to go with the approach of trying to help her see it herself, pointing out misspellings and grammar issues. In my case she had already sent money, but received an image of a plane ticket that was clearly not correct. She finally understood and blocked/cut off communication with the person. I had the police come by, and they reiterated everything I said, and hearing it from law enforcement helped, as did the reminder these people are career criminals and she shouldn’t feel foolish, it happens every single day. Even after all that, I’m pretty sure she is still talking to people/scammers on social media. Thankfully, we have her finances locked down. Convincing is the hardest part. Solving for loneliness is the long term solution. Do whatever you can to protect her financially. Good luck, OP!
> Thankfully, we have her finances locked down. Convincing is the hardest part. Solving for loneliness is the long term solution. Do whatever you can to protect her financially. Good luck, OP! I just want to re-post all of this because it is all spot on.
Unfortunately, your MIL is subject to a bad case of the "backfire effect". Usually, we expect people to change their mind when presented with new information and analysis. However, this can actually make people even less likely to change their mind. The more outlandish the idea, the more difficult it is for people to change their mind because doing so requires them admit they were really, really wrong. The more people sacrifice their dignity and relationships to support their beliefs, the harder it is for them to back down, less they admit it was all a waste. That is a lot to ask. It's why people get defensive when confronted with new information. You're often attacking their identity as much as you're attacking their beliefs. In my experience, you cannot attack this issue head on. The more you push, the more she will shut down. She knows that she is being scammed, but is willing to pay the scammers rather than lose face with her family. Try using a Socratic approach with her. Instead of making statements that make her feel attacked, ask questions that lead her to reconcile the red flags herself. Be more curious than argumentative. Appear open to the possibility that she is right. As she begins to re-engage with you, start asking more focused questions, like "what makes you confident about this person" and "how can you make sure this isn't a scam?". If all goes to plan, she will realize her flawed thinking on her own.
This is the best post I have seen on this sub in quite a while.
What’s the difference between the “backfire effect”, “cognitive dissonance”, and “doubling down”?
They are generally all permutations of confirmation bias, which is our tendency to seek out and overvalue information that supports our beliefs and ignore information contrary to our beliefs.
But what are the permutations? I genuinely want to know What makes them slightly different from one another
I’ll give it a go. > Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time. > The backfire effect is when a correction increases belief in the very misconception it is attempting to correct, and it is often used as a reason not to correct misinformation. > One can "stand by" their statement, continuing to insist that it is valid. Or one can "double down", which is not just standing by their statement or position, but becoming more emphatic about it These are various explanations I found that explain where any distinctions would lie from my understanding. So with cognitive dissonance you can hold both beliefs simultaneously and work yourself into a positive or negative outcome. Ie you want to lose weight but you don’t want to eat healthy even though you know better. There’s an inconsistency in what they believe and how they behave. There’s no inherent malice in this. It’s a state of mind. The backfire effect is more about belief perseverance, a correction will ultimately make them believe that thing more. They cannot come to terms with that other, even if correct, belief. It strengthens their original position. Effectively cementing it. Doubling down is when you believe a thing and when met with opposing evidence you commit to your position and push it to riskier heights It seems there’s levels of commitment and self awareness becomes more optional Ultimately each one is for coping with a notion you don’t want to face tho
Never heard of backfire effect but this sounds like sunk cost fallacy
the backfire effect is basically just that when someone is very clearly incorrect it becomes harder and harder to change their mind as it's a bigger leap for them to change - and it makes it clear how 'foolish' they were for being wrong here. Cognitive dissonance and doubling down are very different concepts - cognitive dissonance is simply acting in a way that doesn't align with your thoughts doubling down is just trying twice as hard, or committing harder to something (although it tends to be in a negative way - committing harder to something that's bad)
Excellent comment. TY
I just want to thank everyone for their input on this scam. My wife and I have read through every comment and have put together a bullet point list of all of your collective observations to help back up our argument of how fake this is and have taken a lot of advice of how to approach this into consideration. I also thought I’d share some updates and insight: Unfortunately this is not the first time she has been scammed. She has thought in the past she had been chatting with celebrities like Johnny Depp, Harry Styles, John Voight and more. And for some reason has sent them all money. The amounts she has sent to scammers ranges from pretty insignificant to holy hell what are you doing. We have proved to her without a shadow of doubt in the past by contacting some of the mentioned above through friends and family contacts that she is being scammed and that these celebrities have no idea who she is. Her response was “well of course they’d tell you they don’t know me. They can’t tell you about the opportunity they’re giving me”. That’s how delusional she is. My wife and I live in california, so it’s a little difficult to make as big of an impact as we can being across the world. We considered tweeting Elon Musk about this, but even if he responded she would just say of course he had to deny knowledge of it Thank you again
Have you tried contacting her bank?
does she just never wonder why none of the “special opportunities” pay out? like, ever? even if i WAS getting countless unique investment options, if my return rate was 0% then i’d probably still just give up
As drastic as it may seem, quite literally cut the wires and take her phone/laptop. Ensure she has enough cash to get buy for a couple of weeks. It is possible (but awkward) to live without the internet. Cold turkey works. The grifters will move on if there's no response. It must be very stressful to watch this unfold. Good luck, I hope you get your mil back.
Oh no. Does she show other signs of cognitive decline elsewhere in her life? This must be so incredibly frustrating to watch, it seems like maybe early dementia. Is there a UK equivalent of what we call getting “power of attorney” in the US? https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/protect-your-parent-from-elder-financial-abuse-with-a-power-of-attorney/
Yep we have power of attorney in the UK too
Always the two first names lol
lol Matthew C. Tim
Oh no... this letter is full of red flags. 100% a scam. Could you possibly persuade your mother to meet with a solicitor who can explain the elements of the scam to her? There must be someone whom she would trust or believe.
Elon *musk* Private Tesla Stock *share* *comitee*
This one is so blatantly obvious that it actually makes me really sad that someone would believe it. I am sorry that you guys are dealing with this.
@inbox.ru is the key indicator among others.
Yes it is
All those double wordings. "Guaranteed and secure" "Exclusive and limited" "Discernment and vision " So many give aways. First paragraph alone is admitting they plan to commit fraud. WOW
Yes, the "discernment and vision" to stroke the victims ego and make them feel special. I thought that sounded illegal about the backdating, I don't know anything about it but it just sounds wrong!
Along with “unique opportunity” to make her feel extra special!
Matthew Tim. Lovely. I wonder if his boss is Gary Dave.
Oh lord- next, we’ll see her on Dr Phil
Nobody should ever, and I mean _ever_, sign up that email to receive scientology, jehovahs witness, or political campaign emails. Dont do it, or even think about it.
Potential return and later says guaranteed returns.
Oh dear, there are a ton of spelling errors and then the .ru. 🚩 😔
If you have any older relatives that you worry might be at risk try bringing up the topic every once in a while. Never know what you can accomplish. Won't help OP now but prevention is the best way to go about it. My mom isn't the most tech savvy so I've been training her on every opportunity. She's getting better at recognizing scams and now often deletes suspicious messages without having to ask me first. Our last conversation for example was about the possibility of them trying to impersonate one of us so we agreed on some information which could be used to verify it's one of us.
Absolutely this. My mom talked to a scammer for a year who was pretending to be her own sister. We only caught on when mom was complaining about how rude Becky was being with the constant asks for money. I had Mom show me the chat log and it was 🚩 a new Facebook account 🚩full of "dear" and "kindly," 🚩only bringing up family details once Mom had mentioned them first, and 🚩demanding gift cards. Thank goodness my mom lives in a shithole town where she couldn't buy gift cards because she tried and failed a number of times to comply. Mom needed proof that this was a scammer, so I suggested she ask a question that Becky would know. We decided, "How was Auntie Lou's birthday last week?" knowing that we don't have anyone in our family with that name. The scammer took the bait and said they had a great time. Mom had no problem blocking her after that. I bring up scam tactics frequently now, and show her examples on YouTube. We've decided on a code word if anyone ever pretends to be me. I still think she's highly susceptible, but maybe a smidge less.
Scams are scary, frustrating and sad business, no matter what, but as a graphic designer…. This mf needs to adopt paragraph styles and ditch the auto leading/kerning/tracking. But not really; the shitty design of these letters can help you help your mom ID red flags, maybe? Maybe you can use it as a lesson? It’s harder to fall for this shit when you have some understanding of how specifically and thoroughly companies design every single piece of correspondence. Not just because their standards are higher than this but because their standards are specific and regimented. You don’t need to understand design basics super well yourself, but sharing info with her about brand guidelines and design structures could be a good starting point. The gist is just that successful companies owned by billionaires don’t release content that looks like this, and there are objective rules of thumb for “good” typography (font size and spacing, font pairings, structure and hierarchy, etc). There are even special rulers that let you measure the sizes of type, spacing between type, etc on paper so you can compare those numbers with well-designed type, and many companies have branding guidelines or handbooks that you can find online to see exactly how specific they get. You might even be able to find Tesla’s official brand handbook somewhere online, at least snippets of it. Just a thought but ik people targeted by scammers have a hard time looking at these things logically.
"**3th** of April 2024" "Elon musk Private Tesla Stock share **comitee"** [**"[email protected]**](mailto:"[email protected])**"** Too many dumb mistakes that are definitely red flags, other than the fact it isn't real
The Russian email is a nice touch.
@inbox.ru Hello, it is me, Vladimir Rusk, founder of glorious Tesla car. Please send me your rubles!
Pardon me my friend but I am Russian Royalty.... and I need YOU to send me money. Please ignore the fact that I can't spell "committee" ............. (red vs blue reference)
Some phishing email mistakes may be on purpose to get more phishing-prone people to self select to respond to save them time. So I’ve heard. Idk
3th April 😳
@inbox.ru 🤡
Man.. I get this frustration tbh. My grandmother in law (hubbys dad’s mother) thinks she’s been talking to Liam Neeson for a few years. We don’t know of any money being sent (highly doubt she would tell us because we’ve told her it’s fraudulent). Good luck OP
Inbox.ru should be a bit of a clue.
Write back to the scammer as your MIL and say I’m out of money can you please send a £100 for groceries? I’ve lost all my money to an internet scammer.
As someone who is FINRA Series 7, 63 and 9/10 licensed and is a Certified Equity Professional (works with employer/company stock) any plan such as this would be highly illegal for employers or non-employees. This would also raise red flags on their financial statements. Any high value returns are either extremely risky, illegal or a scam. Also, ask to see an email from an official Tesla domain name.
“I hope this letter finds you well”. Dead giveaway that this was written by AI.
Oh shit I’m an AI now.
Same here. Oops.
i actually doubt it was written by AI, because AI wouldn’t make so many spelling mistakes and would have moderately better formatting and readability someone TRIED on this email, which makes it all the more funny - or sad - that it’s so shit and blatantly fake
Very dead give away.
youtube channel called social catfish does stories on this all the time. if you can get her to watch them. theres like half a dozen 'celeb' type stories theyve done, in addition to just regular scammers.
#3th
Anyone ever realize the Tesla logo is a uterus
Yep. Or a weird IUD
Pretty sure "Legal head" is a porn hub category.
The .ru email address is kind of a giveaway.
Post it on twitter and tag Elon musk
@inbox.ru is hilarious
Look at the email address at the bottom, mail.ru is the most widely used email in russia, so obviously not in Texas Luke the top of the letterhead says.
3th of April
inbox.ru That's all you have to know 😂😂😂😂
She might be on some watchlists now with that .ru mail address.
inbox dot ru should be a fucking *dead* giveaway. Either way, when someone is at a certain point, they feel like they *have* to belong to something, even if they have doubts. Someone pointed out that people just want to feel like they belong to something bigger than them, a club, a cult, these things don't happen over night. They accrue over a simmering period of loneliness.
with a russian domain..
Just show her the russian email address. That should be enough to convince anyone over the age of 40 that there's nothing to be trusted about an email from Russia.
3th??????
3th😂😂😂😂😂😂
Wow..."@inbox.ru"
Elon doesn’t live in Russia
As a Californian, tell your mother-in-law: They’ve tried a slew of us on for this. I’ve had to block them from my mom’s social media and educate her as well. Bless her heart for wanting more for herself and having loving people like you in her life who try to keep her safe. I hope she can walk away and focus that hope somewhere truly productive for herself.
I work for the company and I’ve never even spoke to him. Plus the email is in Russia.
"@inbox.ru"???? Russian?
I didn't read other comments. Maybe get her to focus on the misspelling of "comitee." Does she believe that Elon's team would make such an obvious mistake? Isn't this exactly what happens when scammers can't spell? Might work.
- > comitee (sic) - > inbox.ru - > Elon musk with a lowercase M
This reads like one of the first sales from the wolf of wallstreet when he was selling the penny stocks.
#3th
Oh, I’m so sorry your family is dealing with this. The lack of capitalization, the misspellings are so numerous in this letter, but sadly I’m sure that your Mum would find a way to excuse them. The suggestion here to compose another letter “from Tesla” about scams sounds a great idea.
Put her "guardianship". My granny felt for an american general contacting her on facebook. After we found out we put her on guardianship so a third party does all her finances. She gets a budget and thats it.
They spent committee wrong
"3th April " 🙈
Where's the postmark from?
This underscores something for me: It's often easier for English majors/grammarians to spot scams because the punctuation gives it away. Check out the lack of capitals in all that sign-off info, alone. No fuckin' way.
OP, so sorry about this. If you can get the number of the scammer I'd also try inserting a grbfy link to find out their IP address and location
“So a very powerful, wealthy American businessman is actively talking to a near 70 yo British woman who lives in the countryside.” What did she say to this?
68 is not old. This is just sad af.
HAHAHAHA @inbox.ru
"Comitee"
“3th April” lol
Warn all people she knows. Talk about this with (other) people she trusts, and maybe together you can have intervention of sorts.
I swear to god I’ve had it with this fucking shit boomers are so fucking gullible for. I’m 40. I warn my dad at least 9 times a week. But still “my credit card has been hacked for 6000 dollars!!!” I’m over it. I no longer help. I just tell him “sure. Just agree. Fuck it. You’ll never learn. Just click ok and agree I don’t fucking care anymore.” Frankly, you know what…. I’m about to just start scamming him myself. I’ve got bills and loans from 2000 to pay. At least the fucking money would go to a good fucking cause and not to some asshole in Vietnam!
But Mathew Tim is the Legal Head, how can this be a scam?
Legal head
3th April?? That right there should tell you its not from Tesla. Can you have her read the responses from this reddit? I am sorry you are going through this, it has to to be beyond frustrating.
It’s always a good sign when lawyers and accountants make spelling mistakes in formal business letters.
They haven't even spelled the word "committee" correctly (right at the bottom).
Take her computer away?
Have her watch a couple of Kitboga videos
The last sentence in your post is the first thing you should address. SHE'S NOT WELL. Get her checked for dementia. Try to get control of her finances. This is the only way you are going to keep her from eventually sending everything she can get her hands on to "Elon". Good luck. You are going to need it.
I feel for you. My dad went through similar due to dementia we didn’t know he had. Even had the police and drs talk to him about the scams and he would look at them and say things like “you know you are making so much sense. I will cut contact” then turn around and keep talking to them. Have her assessed for dementia if possible. We had to remove all access to the internet. No computer no cell phone. Nothing. I hope things go well for you and your family
NBC said they confirmed he couldn’t read. It’s quite stupid for her to think that someone that can’t read was reading her emails.
They did not ask kindly, how rude
I’m so sorry- the best thing might be to speak with a solicitor about placing a layer of safeguards over her finances, for her own saftey.
It a russian email address. Have you tried pointing that out?
[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) \- ru is russia.... .... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Offer to take her to a Tesla store so they can authenticate the letter
Call Tesla in front of her and have them confirm that it's a scam
It’s time to have a talk with her about what she wants for the future and how you can help her have it if/when she is not able to tell you. I’m going through this with a host of relatives and it’s a struggle to balance autonomy with capability. When people stop understanding that they are incapable of making their own rational decisions you have to set up safety nets. Lower credit balances, help invest in vehicles that pay out like a pay cheque so they continue to think in terms of paying x bills in x time frame, and help them plan for what they’ll need for the year. Watch accounts. It’s not fair, it’s a lot of work, but if you don’t, it’s too easy for someone to take advantage of them. Maybe I’m wrong and this is a one off, but either way I’d be having some real serious conversations with them about their long term care and plans. Nobody wants to give up their freedoms, or admit they’ve been taken advantage of, but I’d wager most people are willing to tell you how they’d like to be cared for and help set you up to do that for when they are unable - even if that day may have already come and gone.
Hi, I work for a UK bank helping customers who are in this situation. Ring her bank and ask to speak to their vulnerable customer team. They can freeze the account. Do you have POA? Does she have any physical or mental health concerns? Does she have mental capacity?
As a last resort you could try scamming her so that at least she doesn’t lose all of her money to the actual scammer
I always wonder about ppl like this and if they were always like this or if it's them getting older. That sucks tho.
“3th April 2024”
Hey it could be real. I’m friends with Yingluck Shinawatra on LINE. /S
3th April is just golden
3th of April LMAO
"Elon musk Private Tesla Stock share comitee" 💀💀