what you should do if this happens to you ; Alternative title: We didn't sue the bank

1.   Be aware that the ideal / already conned victim may view your interests and actions to protect them from scammers  as hostile .
      a.  Your trusted parent /loved one may not see you as their advocate even if you are only acting in their self interest. They are built up, flattered, reinforced  and instructed by the CON artists to keep the truth from you and to prove to you that they are right and you are wrong.
   
In my case, not asking dad for permission to do something was a big change.

Part of being an adult child dealing with a vulnerable parent does involve a shifting of the roles.  You cannot ask for permission to do what is right when you are in a circumstance such as this. 


2.  Legally secure the owned property so it cannot be stolen or that loans cannot be placed using it as collateral
      a.  Talk with estate lawyer
      b.  Use your power of attorney before it is revoked (if you end up in a hostile situation where the victim and scammers are on one side and you are on the other side)
      c.  If necessary, court ordered conservatorship is the last resort .

Conservatorship is a kind of Guardianship , but it is restricted to only dealing with financial affairs, allowing the person to maintain their autonomy in other aspects of life.
Legal advice for the conservatorship process totaled in excess of $10,000 in our case (using a general attorney from a small town, as opposed to a Eldercare attorney specialist, which may or may not be less expensive.  Our case also involved keeping the attorney in the loop on multiple lines of evidence of financial incompetence as they became evident, which was a time consuming process, possibly not necessary in all cases)
 If the victim is sufficiently impaired that they are not capable of personal self-care (ie, beyond financial oversight needs), such as feeding, grooming, etc,  then Guardianship may be apart of this process.  Guardianship requires physician /social services documentations as well.

3.  Report to police, state and federal Fraud resources (including attorney general for your state) but don't expect much help from the law.
Even the loss of an individuals entire life savings is small potatoes in the world of international fraud.  The police system is not equipped to deal with these individual cases which often have international connections.

4.  Document, Document, Document.

5.  Recognize if there is one form of scam taking place against your senior Victim, there may be more.
Look for evidence of credit card fraud, which can be traced and for which legal/ police recourse may be available.

6.  We didn't sue the bank, but if I had it all to do over again, I would investigate this option.  The bank has a responsibility to recognize suspicious transactions, especially international wire transfers.


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For those in less perilous circumstances, or for those who want to plan for the future to prevent such occurrences

Establish power of attorney with a trusted advocate while you are still young.

Speak with your accountant or lawyer about what kinds of safeguards you can build into the management of your resources to protect you (including from yourself) while you are alive.

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The advice offered in this blog is only the opinion of the blogger and is not intended as legal advice. Proper legal council is recommended in all matters.  

How to understand it all

The blog shows the actual email transcripts and related documents related to the financial fraud inflicted on a vulnerable and financially incompetent senior citizen.

Note that the the reports and dates are accurate, including misspelling of words, poor grammar, etc.

The vulnerable senior was involved in MULTIPLE scams with presumably MULTIPLE different groups of scammers, at the same time.  I believe that the different scam scenario groups did not know about each other, at least not until no earlier than Feb, 2010, possibly after that.  For the lonely senior widower, the high level of  stimulation that came through the repeated  telephone and email interactions was, I am sure, exciting.  He was also promised millions of dollars - multiple fortunes, all for the small price of the fees they asked him to pay.  The military brotherhood connection of one scam was also an effective bait.

The phone was ringing 24/7 at that time. The senior Victim was driving from bank to bank and from Western Union to Western Union, to avoid suspicion, as instructed by the scammers.

When faced with the truth, the senior victim refused to consistently believe he was being scammed.

Emergency conservatorship Protected Person status was awarded by court order in March, 2010.  Prior to that, the financial "bleeding" continued, largely unabated, except for what is described in the reports, achievable through Power of Attorney (which was revoked twice).  Once liquid money resources were not available, scammers encourage the senior to sell valuables or to consider getting loans.  In fact, in this case, the Senior Victim DID borrow $48,000 in early January, 2010, which he was in process of sending to scammers before the loan was discovered and 75% of its loss was prevented/stopped by family members.

Vulnerable seniors who get CONNED are also CONNED to believe that their family members need to be kept out of the loop, as is shown in this case.  The Bank saw the financial "bleeding" for a long time, too long,  before they acted to inform responsible family members.