My parents came close to being scammed. My sister, who lives with them, answered the phone and there was a young man who said, “Grandma?” My sister thought it was my son and replied, “Luke? No, this is Aunt Larla, just a minute, let me get her.” Now the scammer knew my son’s first name, my sister’s first name, and that he was speaking to Grandma next. My sister went to my mom and told her that my son was on the phone and sounded upset. Fortunately, my mom became suspicious because the scammer said he was in another country and I hadn’t mentioned that to her in our recent conversation. She told the scammer that he should call DH and me because they loved him and would help him. Yet she still asked me where DS was when she called me that night. BECAUSE LOVING RELATIVES CANNOT LIVE WITH THEMSELVES IF THEY WERE WRONG. These scammer are the scum of the earth.

I am loyal to my children. Your husband has no right to be upset. Make sure your report it. Hopefully her money can be retrieved. It could happen to anyone.

I just can't believe she thought it was your voice. If text or email I could understand, but that is insane.

pretending to be me and told her that I was in jail in Boston after making a last minute trip because her mom was in the hospital

The sounds suspicious. How would The scammer have known Your moms mom was a in a hospital in Boston?

Anonymous wrote:Your mom didn't recognize that it wasn't your voice?

The person I know who was scammed in this way was fooled by a combination of “poor connection” and their “loved one” seemed to be talking between hysterical crying bouts.

Anonymous wrote:Your mom didn't recognize that it wasn't your voice?

Have you ever talked to someone on the phone that's in jail? Because I haven't. So if someone told me that the quality of jail phones aren't great and that's why their voice sounds different/far away/distorted, I'd believe them.

Anonymous wrote:Your mom didn't recognize that it wasn't your voice?

Thy can manipulate voices- they probably had a recording of OP's voice.

Your mom didn't recognize that it wasn't your voice?

Anonymous wrote:Cant the $50K be retrieved somehow? Paper trail?

Yeah - this. Transferring $50k is not easy.

I just googled "elderly scammed out of money help" and tons of resources popped up. Wire transfers take a few days to go through and no bank is going to want to be in the middle of a criminal case. Hopefully authorities were called right away. It should definitely be reported to the FBI.

Cant the $50K be retrieved somehow? Paper trail?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So she didn’t try to call you at all in the past few days? Didn’t tell anyone at all who thought it was suspicious?

We spoke Sunday and the Tuesday afternoon I sent her a photo, the damage happened in this window. And no, she didn’t tell anyone. My whole family is mad at her which makes me feel even worse for her but come on... why didn’t she confide in anyone but my stepdad? It is really mind boggling. My DH is furious she didn’t call him.

Wow, your family is mad at her and your husband is furious?? I guess it’s true no good deed goes unpunished....

Give her a break. Those scammers are very convincing. Your poor mother is humiliated and on top of it, her family is angry and questioning her sanity. Y’all need to be more compassionate. If my H were furious at my mom for this, we’d be having a serious come-to-Jesus moment.

+1

Your husband is a horrible person, OP. Your poor mom.

I don’t think the DH is a horrible person. Her mother thought her daughter had killed two people and didn’t tell the the daughter’s husband because a third party said so. I imagine he’s less upset about the money and more upset about the withholding of what (the mother thought) was extremely serious information.

OP's mom didn't know it was a "third party." She thought it was her daughter! " I needed bail money and I made her promise not to tell my husband (they knew his name) because I wanted to tell him in my own way when I got home."

The mom was trying to respect her daughter's privacy and not interfere in her marriage!

Missed that. Still, I personally feel like once this dragged into a second day and the mother still thought the daughter was in jail, she should have said said something, even just a nudge to reach out to her. Especially since OP has a child at home - my husband would have been frantic if I had gone missing that long.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that op’s poor mom demonstrated excellent judgement.

On a separate note, these monsters could literally cause an old person to have a heart attack (in addition to stealing their money.) I would love to know if police are ever able to catch them.

No, just that her husband is horrible for being mad at the mom. Which, no. He’s likely coming from the perspective of “what if this has happened for real?”. There is respecting privacy then there is this. Leaving off our judgement, by day two this magnitude of legal issues is something a spouse should be aware of. Not to mention, if something had happened to OP, spouse might be frantically worried.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So she didn’t try to call you at all in the past few days? Didn’t tell anyone at all who thought it was suspicious?

We spoke Sunday and the Tuesday afternoon I sent her a photo, the damage happened in this window. And no, she didn’t tell anyone. My whole family is mad at her which makes me feel even worse for her but come on... why didn’t she confide in anyone but my stepdad? It is really mind boggling. My DH is furious she didn’t call him.

Wow, your family is mad at her and your husband is furious?? I guess it’s true no good deed goes unpunished....

Give her a break. Those scammers are very convincing. Your poor mother is humiliated and on top of it, her family is angry and questioning her sanity. Y’all need to be more compassionate. If my H were furious at my mom for this, we’d be having a serious come-to-Jesus moment.

+1

Your husband is a horrible person, OP. Your poor mom.

I don’t think the DH is a horrible person. Her mother thought her daughter had killed two people and didn’t tell the the daughter’s husband because a third party said so. I imagine he’s less upset about the money and more upset about the withholding of what (the mother thought) was extremely serious information.

OP's mom didn't know it was a "third party." She thought it was her daughter! " I needed bail money and I made her promise not to tell my husband (they knew his name) because I wanted to tell him in my own way when I got home."

The mom was trying to respect her daughter's privacy and not interfere in her marriage!

Missed that. Still, I personally feel like once this dragged into a second day and the mother still thought the daughter was in jail, she should have said said something, even just a nudge to reach out to her. Especially since OP has a child at home - my husband would have been frantic if I had gone missing that long.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that op’s poor mom demonstrated excellent judgement.

On a separate note, these monsters could literally cause an old person to have a heart attack (in addition to stealing their money.) I would love to know if police are ever able to catch them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So she didn’t try to call you at all in the past few days? Didn’t tell anyone at all who thought it was suspicious?

We spoke Sunday and the Tuesday afternoon I sent her a photo, the damage happened in this window. And no, she didn’t tell anyone. My whole family is mad at her which makes me feel even worse for her but come on... why didn’t she confide in anyone but my stepdad? It is really mind boggling. My DH is furious she didn’t call him.

Wow, your family is mad at her and your husband is furious?? I guess it’s true no good deed goes unpunished....

Give her a break. Those scammers are very convincing. Your poor mother is humiliated and on top of it, her family is angry and questioning her sanity. Y’all need to be more compassionate. If my H were furious at my mom for this, we’d be having a serious come-to-Jesus moment.

+1

Your husband is a horrible person, OP. Your poor mom.

I don’t think the DH is a horrible person. Her mother thought her daughter had killed two people and didn’t tell the the daughter’s husband because a third party said so. I imagine he’s less upset about the money and more upset about the withholding of what (the mother thought) was extremely serious information.

OP's mom didn't know it was a "third party." She thought it was her daughter! " I needed bail money and I made her promise not to tell my husband (they knew his name) because I wanted to tell him in my own way when I got home."

The mom was trying to respect her daughter's privacy and not interfere in her marriage!

Missed that. Still, I personally feel like once this dragged into a second day and the mother still thought the daughter was in jail, she should have said said something, even just a nudge to reach out to her. Especially since OP has a child at home - my husband would have been frantic if I had gone missing that long.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So she didn’t try to call you at all in the past few days? Didn’t tell anyone at all who thought it was suspicious?

We spoke Sunday and the Tuesday afternoon I sent her a photo, the damage happened in this window. And no, she didn’t tell anyone. My whole family is mad at her which makes me feel even worse for her but come on... why didn’t she confide in anyone but my stepdad? It is really mind boggling. My DH is furious she didn’t call him.

Wow, your family is mad at her and your husband is furious?? I guess it’s true no good deed goes unpunished....

Give her a break. Those scammers are very convincing. Your poor mother is humiliated and on top of it, her family is angry and questioning her sanity. Y’all need to be more compassionate. If my H were furious at my mom for this, we’d be having a serious come-to-Jesus moment.

+1

Your husband is a horrible person, OP. Your poor mom.

I don’t think the DH is a horrible person. Her mother thought her daughter had killed two people and didn’t tell the the daughter’s husband because a third party said so. I imagine he’s less upset about the money and more upset about the withholding of what (the mother thought) was extremely serious information.

OP's mom didn't know it was a "third party." She thought it was her daughter! " I needed bail money and I made her promise not to tell my husband (they knew his name) because I wanted to tell him in my own way when I got home."

The mom was trying to respect her daughter's privacy and not interfere in her marriage!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So she didn’t try to call you at all in the past few days? Didn’t tell anyone at all who thought it was suspicious?

We spoke Sunday and the Tuesday afternoon I sent her a photo, the damage happened in this window. And no, she didn’t tell anyone. My whole family is mad at her which makes me feel even worse for her but come on... why didn’t she confide in anyone but my stepdad? It is really mind boggling. My DH is furious she didn’t call him.

Wow, your family is mad at her and your husband is furious?? I guess it’s true no good deed goes unpunished....

Give her a break. Those scammers are very convincing. Your poor mother is humiliated and on top of it, her family is angry and questioning her sanity. Y’all need to be more compassionate. If my H were furious at my mom for this, we’d be having a serious come-to-Jesus moment.

+1

Your husband is a horrible person, OP. Your poor mom.

I don’t think the DH is a horrible person. Her mother thought her daughter had killed two people and didn’t tell the the daughter’s husband because a third party said so. I imagine he’s less upset about the money and more upset about the withholding of what (the mother thought) was extremely serious information.