I'm pissed off at people who prey on elderly folks.

My mom passed away a few months ago, and I am her personal representative. Now her mail comes to me.

Sorting through her modest estate, I've found any number of parasitic scumsuckers who managed to worm their way into her checking account via hucksterism.

These rotten bastards hooked up to direct withdrawal from her checking account for car insurance (she couldn't drive), a term life insurance policy (she was 82 and they deny payout after 30 days of her death, I didn't know she had it) and now she, post-mortem, is receiving an incredible number of solicitations by mail for all kinds of right-wing causes.

Now I realize that they solicit even my dad. Problem is, he has been dead since 2003. These sons-a-bitches are still trying to shake him down for political bucks.

Mom was a die-hard (literally) FDR Democrat. Dad was a moderate Republican (now extinct) who would not give a penny to these flim-flammers.

I'm sure I'm not the only baby boomer here who has discovered that their parents have been scammed. I hope there is some hell to pay for all the crap that our senior citizens have had stolen from them from some asshole with a smiling, lying face or smooth telephone voice.

And hell to pay for all the deregulation and shit from the Republicans and blue-dog Dems who made it all possible and profitable.

Has this happened to you or someone you love?

her mail as I didn't live in the same state, but my Mimi was frail and developing dementia (maybe Alzheimers?) in her last few years. She had some beautiful icons from Rome, some gorgeous paintings, etc., she had promised to her grandkids at one time or another. This family moved in and scammed her royally. She probably gave her stuff away freely, but they should have known better given her mental state. Shortly after that she moved in w/my folks, then a nursing home.

She also paid for services on her home not rendered; she wrote a check, the contractors disappeared w/o doing anything.

There are some very unscrupulous souls out there.

And I'm sorry for your loss. :hug:

Is there no end to stealing by these creeps?

Same to you, too. :hug:

The major problem was that the father of his grandchildren was sitting right there. But my dad, being the true christian that he is, would not hand over the phone to me so I could yell at the perpetrators. Damn nice people!

and I screen the potential "lenders" for her. 9 of 10 turn out to be scammers. It's unreal. I'd hate to think what would happen if there was no one helping her filter this cr@p.

My parents are both dead. I was still getting things up until about a year ago when GM failed. A fancy note appeared to my mother from GM offering her $5,000.00 off on a new car!

Immediately after she died a bunch of crap came up. The scammers were there the second she died in fact. One was on the phone calling up her best friend to tell her she had died and also to ask her if she "knew where to send the check". A faux addendum to her will was drawn up in the hospice care home. :grr:

I was so very angry that I did not write out any checks to anyone and that included the funeral parlor. I fired her attorney as he was incompetent among other things ... :mad:

It amazes me all of the crap they got from our parents. I suppose it still goes on with those that are still living. The "Greatest Generation" was also = the most secretive generation IMO.

I think the message is that you should try to check if you can to find out what is going on with them if possible.

Sorry to hear of your loss and now having to deal with all of this crap. :hug:

I do hope that I am wrong and that there is a hell for these people. I was lucky that my mom was sharp as a tack up to her death and was informed enough to know a scam when it came along, or at least to be skeptical and research it. But this happens so often and there really should be more that can be done.

As to that term life insurance that she was paying for and that refuses to pay now, the least you can do is contact your state insurance regulator. Ditto for the car insurance. And if it were me, I would also contact the state attorney general's office. Even if they do nothing, at least you tried to do something.

Another idea is the local Council on Aging.

:grouphug:

I would think this would be a great idea if they print the list in the newspaper every week or every month.

This subject just depresses me. I have so much more respect for prostitutes and bookies than these bottom feeders.

they can open an investigation. It probably helps them track trends, too.

I know what you mean. It is depressing.

:)

We're going forward with the life insurance thing. What an insult to learn that they won't pay out.

It's probably worth less than five thousand bucks, but it is the principle.

My mom was pretty sharp too, but they got a lot past her.

Attorney General of your mother's state and to the Office of the Postal Inspector of the U.S. Post Office, expressing the same indignation that you've expressed here. I've been doing that for a while now and I've found that these scam attempts have tailed off considerably.

And I have it drilled into her that she is not to engage in ANY financial obligation with someone she hasn't done business with before.
She has a computer and I've stressed to her that she's not to send anyone she doesn't know ANY information.

Fortunately, I'm less than two hours away from her so I can always go there for a spot check.
She's cool.

If her back didn't bother her, she'd be all over it even after after open heart surgery in March.
But, she's tough and she (reluctantly) listens to me every now and then...

They should have to pay on that insurance. At the least you can notify your commission of their underhanded practices and maybe get them shut down in your state. That's just bullshit.

And yes I hear this crap all of the time. My step-son's grandfather gets stuff that says his social security is going to be terminated and send money to help fight to save it. Trouble is, it's Republican groups that are sending him these scare letters. No wonder seniors have lost their marbles the last 20 years. Someone posted mailings a few years ago, that had gone to his mother in California. They looked like they were sent from a group that had connections to Republican Party mailing companies. He got banned for some reason so there went that. I would be they are all connected though. It's disgusting.

And I should say I don't appreciate trumped up hysteria to raise money when the left does it either.

you have to be brain dead to support any right wing cause so of course they would send things to the recently deceased. I too hate this practice, it is so unethical I cant even think of any words to explain how unethical it is.

my uncle found out she had been donating to some creepy RW groups (she was very sweet and very naive). He is a hard core Chamber of Commerce RWer. He is socially pretty liberal, but thinks the CC 'has his back'. He started getting letters from some RW christian group saying that she had willed her estate to them, and asking for upwards of $50,000.

Fortunately my cousin got involved when his dad asked him what he should do. It was a complete scam.

The sad thing is that seniors grieving the loss of their life-partner are often filled with guilt and a need to 'do something' for their lost spouse.

I hope this kind of crap gets exposed whenever it occurs.

After my father died my mother moved probably 5 or 6 times in a period of 4 years. She was so very sad. There was nothing anyone could do to help her with her grief.

She ended up not far from where I live fortunately. She had moved here a few months earlier secretly. I had the Highway Patrol out looking for her in fact. It seems she was very sick and no one, including her knew it. She had cancer and was making all sorts of mistakes and signing all sort of things.

What a mess it was. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. It was truly the nightmare from hell. As for her mail, I cannot say I remember seeing much of anything really being she moved so many times. No one could keep up with her and that includes me! :(

After she had passed away one by one they began to appear asking for money. I was not generous, believe me. She died with 4 lawsuits going on in fact. Makes me sick thinking about it.

I hope my Fundie mom outlives me... her donations are so extreme she bragged about being on the 'no fly list' this summer.

She complains to us (her kids) that she needs to have her ancillary furnace fixed (big house), yet gives $$$$$ to EXTREME freaky fundie groups.

She tried to get dad to move us all into a special cave in the '70's - because everyone else was going to die.


Schizophrenia - excused by religiosity - that's my best guess.

It is bad enough to have to deal with this crap but having deal deal with a person that has a psychiatric disorder of some sort makes it a lot worse. I suspect I was dealing with a similar situation too. My mother wasn't politically involved necessarily but she got sucked into all sorts of other things, especially these fundie churches. She was Catholic by faith but she often looked elsewhere. She usually ended up giving a lot of money to some place and then got away.

She also had a few people after her - those that prey on the elderly. One in particular told her I was evil and to stay away from me. :( I got rid of her before she found out she was ill. I don't know how much she got out of her or what exactly.

Hopefully these have been lessons that we needed to learn I guess. Will we ever know?

My mom started out Catholic until she wanted to get a divorce from my dad.

Now all Catholics are evil to her.

The early Catholic training of guilt and 'looking out for evil' Are mighty appealing to grifters looking to part one from their $$$$

She told my mother she was Irish and that she was from Ireland. In fact, she was Scottish and was here in the USA illegally I believe. When I confronted her and told her to stay away from my mother she backed off quickly and said that she was thinking about going back to Scotland soon. I told her that I thought that was a very good idea. She was a Protestant best I know.

I must have found close to 50 different bibles where she lived. My god, it was unreal. I remember I was trying to clean the place out and sell it for her and she asked me about the whereabouts of one bible she had. I told her I didn't know (likely it got thrown out with a bunch of other garbage). She had a fit and told me that I was going to get in trouble for throwing her bible away. It kind of freaked me out I will admit as I too was raised Catholic but I don't have much regard for it. I do remember mentioning this to the priest and he said that I was just doing the best I could and to let it go. He was so very right.

Sad thread this one is huh?

So many sociopaths.... so many jail cells taken up by pot users that could serve a MUCH better purpose.

These sociopaths need to be housed where they can no longer do harm.

Thanks for sharing it. Your aunt could be my mom, as you described her.

:)

vulnerable need to locked up w/ the key 'lost'.

and there should be a special hell for those bastards that prey on the elderly.

My Mom was a die hard FDR Democrat also and until the day she died said, there was and never will be another (F.D.) Roosevelt. Miss you Mom.

:)

My brother has been trying with little success to get her direct deposits going into the new correct account for almost two years now.

What a nightmare.

Don

Good luck to you and your brother.

Six months of phone calls, letters, and the help of our excellent attorney and we've barely gotten through even half the process.

And all my parents had was a decrepit house, a small bank account, and not much else.

What a hassle.

My parents DO NOT even live in the US. They have been tourists for over twenty five years... and I still get the crap in their name from time to time.

I fielded a call from one of these leeches, and I referred it to the DA. I had many concerns, including where the fuck did they get their info?

We can't prosecute war criminals like Cheney, but we can ask non-citizens for $$$.

What a country.

:grr:

and yes... I agree.

It is amazing.

Gram was being drained of about $400 every month, from several different scams. Took over a year just to get all the charges to stop.

:hi:

:hi:

and involving someone calling and claiming to be from the bank across the street and asking for "confirmation" of their account numbers and names and such. What a bunch of ****ing creeps.

My Mom was mostly pretty good about direct access to the checking account, only utilities that you can maintain direct personal contact for disputes. The one time she got burned was a CC she thought she had canceled years ago. When the balance got over $110 she asked me about it. Having gone through that fight when BofA took over my CC and started with outrageous fees on a card that I barely used, I told her the only sane recourse was to pay it of with written notification to cancel the card. It's like trying to fight the IRS for a small discrepancy, you might win but it will cost you more than it's worth.
I feel bad for those that don't have the freedom to be close to their parents and make sure they don't get taken by these bloodsuckers.

being the untrusting souls that they are.

Even my MIL who died at the age of 93 was never scammed, but her three kids all lived close enough to keep an eye on her, plus she had grandkids who watched out for her too. Not to mention that she was sort of a....tightwad...with her money. That always helps.... :7

It would be nice to think that the current generation of people will not be as trusting as our parents are/were...I think that is one of the major problems. People didn't seem to run around scamming each other back then...or at least there weren't as many opportunities for them to do it as there are now. Older people might tend to trust others because of the world they grew up in. Well, that's what I've heard, anyway.

I know one thing from watching Mr Pip and people who try to take advantage of him...they don't know who the hell they're messing with. About the only times he's ever been taken advantage of were a handful of times on eBay. Other than that....people who call or send emails or whatever...he's just a cranky old bastard to them and likely to tell them to eat shit or fuck off.

Needless to say I'm no longer friends with them.

She claimed, as every single one of them have in similar situations, that "he gave it to me to show his gratitude for the excellent care I gave him."

Didn't work for her, and she wound up in a special kind of care facility for perps like her. Unfortunately, the money was long gone.

I've heard reports that there are groups of seniors (and those pretending to be seniors) that get together to run sophisticated con-jobs on the scammers.

The general idea is to make the scammers look foolish. The best I've heard is they got one scammer to go to Times Square in a bright yellow suit to "pick up the money."

How far will confidence men go if they think the person on the other end is senile and helpless and has a pot of money?

Many elderly on those buses

Are likely semisenile

And will lose IMHO

life savings. Or chunks of it.

Obvious SCANDAL.

Where's MSM expose'. ?

In addition to the street level scams, we have insurance companies selling life insurance to 85 year-olds, and Politicians who want to gut social security, medicare and medicaid. Thank you for speaking up. We all need to speak up for each other. Speak Up America

was sending money to television evangelists. She hadn't had a religious bone in her body her whole life and it would have made more sense for her to send cash to the soap opera stars she loved. This was a woman who had sold her house after my grandfather died and lived out her days in a small mobile home she rented, existing on a very modest amount of money. From what I gathered, the parasites would actually call her on the phone with a "cash for prayers" plea. Disgusting.