|
Before her eventual death my grandmother suffered from a gambling addiction and dementia, as you would expect this was a lethal combination especially because the family had no idea how deep both ran until about 2 years before her eventual demise. This coupled with her attitude of "buying" people made her a great target for scammers. By the time she died she was totally off her rocker and had no friends left in the world as most had died before her, faded into obscurity or been essentially extorting her for cash before we found out and put the word on them to cough it back up  . Apparently there was this one couple of 'friends' she had, whose names I can't remember thus we will call them Frank and Jane, who she would talk to us about occasionally. Normally it would be "Oh yes Frank, Jane and I had lunch together down at the club" or "Frank and Jane picked me up and we went shopping together," which for a year prior to her being properly diagnosed with dementia and moved to an aged care facility (loooong story there) sounded like a nice ray of sunshine and social interaction in the old birds life to us. Of course when things came to a head and we became more aware of her mental state and addiction questions started getting asked about her financials. Turned out she had been burning money at a steady pace for quite a while, with most of it disappearing into the pokies at the local sports club. There was a particular time I recall where we found out she went to the bank and withdrew about one thousand dollars in cash on one day, then came back the next day and did it again and the day after that; couldn't tell us where'd it had been spent or what she'd done during those days except "Oh I was probably at the club"). We eventually pieced together that old mate Frank and Jane, who ever the gently caress they were, would turn up/send a taxi up to her (we found some of the local cabbies knew her by name because one time my mother ordered a taxi from her place and was greeted with a "Hello Mrs. NAME, bit late for you today isn't it?" when the cab pulled up in the driveway) get her to withdraw some cash then go to the pokies with her for the whole day where dear old granny would pay for the drinks, the meal and the fun. This was happening up to 3 times a week! We tried in earnest to find out who these people were, but couldn't despite being a fairly well connected family in town. Frank and Jane had no surnames, none of her neighbors (one who was barely ever there, and the others behind a very big fence who kept to them selves) ever saw enough details to use, the bank staff never saw anyone with her/motivating her to get money at least inside the bank, and there are that many people flowing in and out of the sports club that it was a lost cause there. The theories was had were they were either another old couple fleecing her cause they could, that maybe they were real friends who also had gambling issues and they egged each other on or that they were even some younger, potentially middle aged people who just found a soft target to fleece for some cash on a regular basis. The moral of this long post is keep an eye on your old folks mental capacity and act upon it sooner rather than later; it makes them prime targets not just for telemarketers but also enterprising con-artists.
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2016 14:45
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 20, 2024 02:37 |
|
|
Kelp Me! posted:While this is pretty scummy, did your grandmother ever mention if she actually enjoyed/hated interacting with these people? Was her money going to pass on to your family after her death? I can't say for sure whether or not sure truly enjoyed or hated interacting with the mystery people because no one ever saw them. We asked multiple times if we could meet them and she would always forget their phone number or say they turn up when its time to go or that they meet her down at the club. We tried waiting with her for them to arrive, but never saw anyone. Hell they could have just been people in her head; she was fairly demented by this point. It took a long time to finally get her to move out of the house. And full disclosure, yes the money was to pass onto her 3 children; my father, his sister and brother. ToxicSlurpee posted:It also tends to be a long, slow slide. It can take time to kick in and get noticed by anybody. The old person them self probably doesn't realize it and will fight you on it. Oh yeah, she went kicking and screaming all right; especially about us wanting to move her into a supported living area (very nice place, roomy for one person, great view and literally 2 blocks from my home so I could visit her easily on weekends). The big issue was she hadn't done any power of attorney documents so it was hard to be able to sort things out for a while. Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Oct 14, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2016 01:04
|
|
|
Kelp Me! posted:have you considered the fact that perhaps your grandmother rediscovered her party animal side and was going out and having a roaring good time on her own, and didn't want her kids/grandkids cramping her style/worrying about her? Considered, quickly realized that it was not the case, moved on. Have you considered that we were her family who loved her and knew what and who she was. Granted as a human being she wasn't someone I liked but she was still my dads beloved mother and my grandma. And perhaps I'm not giving you the full rundown on her mental/health issues beyond the scam/con related stuff as is the point of the tread because frankly your implications of caring more about the money then her happiness can gently caress right off.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2016 06:53
|
|
|
I spent some time working for my state governments office office of fair trading. My job was to take complaints from consumer's about products or services provided by traders and attempt to conciliate them. This was like being a neutral negotiator between the two to reach an outcome that was inline with the Australian Consumer Law and acceptable to both parties. It wasn't enforcement as that can only be done by a tribunal or court in my state, but the idea was that we could help people reach a conclusion with out choking up the courts with claims that were basic. For example if someone purchased a defective vacuum cleaner from a white goods dealer and complained to us about it, I would contact the dealer and see what they would be willing to offer the complainant. Under the ACL the vacuum had to be fit for purpose when sold so if the defect was cause by manufacturing error the trade should either repair or replace it. Most good traders would do this without us but sometimes we'd have to give them a small poke to remind them of their obligations. Of course this worked both ways where a complainant could easily be lying or overstating a claim for their own benefit. Scams were a part of the job on both sides. The most popular are the eBay sales people who claim to be from Australia but end up being from elsewhere. People would buy phones from them, phones would arrive either: broken, pre used, fakes of brand names or frankly in one case a literal empty box (not eBay other thing ask about this one) and the trader was unreachable with their business was number being fake and their email dead. I will try to think of some sanitised stories to share, as I must be careful with not giving away personal details, but feel free to ask questions and I'll see what I can say.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2018 02:29
|
|
|
Not really a good story but close to home for me: I worked in my states Office of Fair Trading for a time. We dealt with people who had issues with traders, products or services under the Australian Consumer Law as an intermediary body and a step before the courts. I left a year ago but in my new job by complete luck I'm only a few meters away from the dividing border of my old colleges and my new job. So I see them a lot. Last week I overhead one of my former colleagues on the phone talking to a person I assumed to be a dodgy trader or scammer. I was half right, what I expected was us calling them. No the scammers themselves called my old office, got told who they had just called and then still tried their sales pitch (some bullshit about how the receiver of the call is owed a pile of money after an apparent car accident) not quite understanding what they'd just done. Edit: Wicked Them Beats posted:I remember a movie theater I worked at was really strict about the age limits for R-rated movies. People were shocked they couldn't just buy tickets for the two kids outside who I'd already told to take a hike. When I was just starting university I worked in a corner shop. We sold cigarettes as most do. Kids from the local expensive private boarding school would try to buy them all the time. poo poo was hilarious calling 16 and 17 year olds out on their poor attempts to seem 18. The youngest person I ever had who tried to buy some surely must be a record though. She was about 4 or 5. Walked in bold as brass with a 50 in hand and asked for a packet of 30 Horrizon Purples. "I'm not selling you that love." "Ok." And out she walks to a car parked right infront of the shop door. I see movement in the driver side window and back in she comes. "My auntie says that she had 3 babies in the car and can't come out do can you please sell me the smokes." "No tell your aunt it's illegal." "Ok." Back she goes. More animated movement some muffled swearing and back in she comes. "She said can YOU buy them for her and she will pay you back if you come outside." "No. Please stop trying I'm not selling her any unless she comes in here herself." So rather than play anymore back and forth I walked out to the door csude the shop was empty and saw the auntie was in fact a regular customer who disgusted me for various reasons but this was a new low. She gives me an earful about how she has babies in the car, she can't come out, she needs her smokes and how come I can't be a reasonable person. So I told her that I don't give a drat and next time she comes back into my shop she better behave like an adult or I'll refuse her service. She threatened to complain to my boss and I laughed about it. Walked back inside and went out the back to the attached house where my boss lived and told him the story over lunch. I saw her again like a week later and she was grumpy as poo poo at me brought her own drat smokes. Gridlocked fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Aug 2, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Aug 2, 2018 11:58
|
|