Scam Victims
I can’t believe it. I just found out that my in-laws were scammed out of a HUGE chunk of money ($25,000) yesterday. I don’t want to go into the details of what happened because it makes me sick to think about it, but I will say it was a phone scam and that someone managed to convince them to wire the money to a bank account by saying a relative was in big trouble.
My in-laws are very trusting people, obviously, and aren’t all that savvy when it comes to scams and what not. They’re in their mid-60s, are retired, have a fixed income, and just gave away a chunk of their nest egg because they thought they were helping a relative in trouble.
At first I was angry that they could have been so gullible, especially as they person in question would NEVER get into the kind of trouble that the scammers claimed she was in. I asked why they didn’t make a couple of phone calls to verify the problem before wiring money. I mean, there are a hundred little things they could have done to avoid being scammed.
But it happened, and I know they feel terrible about it now, so I didn’t want to press the issue. They’ve filled out police reports and so forth, but it’s doubtful that they’ll ever see that money again.
A few people I’ve talked to about this have tried to convince me to look on the bright side. What’s done is done, they say, so there’s no sense in reliving and rehashing it continually. At least everyone still has their health, and your in-laws are still able to make ends meet even after losing all that money.
While I agree that there’s value in looking at things that way, it’s far easier said than done. I’ve had an entire day to mull this over, and even though their money loss doesn’t affect me directly (in a financial way, I mean), I still feel sick to my stomach every time I think of what happened.
Let’s hope the cops find the bastards who did this and put them away for a good, long time so they can’t bilk any other retirees out of their life savings.