Brother Scammed my Aunt out of $100,000 (She's 76)

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. My aunt, this is such an odd story, has been scammed for about $100,000 by my biological brother. Oh my gosh. I did not think that you would say it was flesh and blood. It sure is. And he's actually, he's been living with her. And us and the family all just found out about this very recently. And, you know, we found out she was three months behind on her mortgage. We are partially caught up on that. And she's only making, you know, she's on social security and retirement. We're just trying to figure out how we can fix the situation. Thank We've already removed him from the situation and we're just trying to figure out, like, all right, how do we go forward? So how did he do it? Did he get her to put money in some account? Was he forging her signature on things? Like what, how did it happen? All of the above. He actually, he not only, you know, you. got money out of her by asking and by kind of manipulating, but he also, you know, forged her social security number and her information to open some accounts. Over what period of time did this happen? Was this over the course of years or did this happen relatively fast? Over the last 12 to 16 months, I want to say. Okay. So was he caretaking for her? Was he taking care of her? Like what was the nature of their relationship together? No. So, um, she has basically raised me and my brother as kids. And, um, you know, after I moved out, my brother stayed. So my brother has lived with her since he turned 18. He's only 24, I think he's 24 and she is 76. She's my great aunt. I'm so sorry this happened. So where does this leave her? It's a hundred thousand dollars that she's been tricked out of deceived out of, uh, she's She's got social security. What other assets does she have? So she has her house, which obviously isn't paid off, but I think she owes like 260 on it. And she's got, I think it's worth 500-ish. So she's got a lot of equity in that. She owes probably about $100,000 in credit cards, partially from him, partially from her, just old people credit card stuff, right? Okay. Well, have you guys pressed legal charges against him, John? So what we did is we went in and we filed a restraining order against him so we could get him removed from the house. He has been served with that by the police. There's a court date coming up soon and we will, we'll essentially be, you know, pleading our case and saying, hey, we want to get a long-term protective order against him or against him from her. And, um, we basically are just trying to keep them away from each other. I think my aunt still partially believes that he's going to give her this money back. Well, have you disputed, it sounds like the credit cards, he did that. Have you disputed that with the creditors? And so, um, fraud as for the, as for the creditors, we haven't dug deep enough into that. It's all very recent. Um, but we have dug into her bank account, at least those things. And we fixed a lot of her overdraft charges. So she's like got $0 in her account, you know, but all of her bills are at least paid. Now she's still behind on her mortgage and behind on some of her other, um, payments. But I mean, he was taking out quick cash loans in her name with her social security number. Wow. So can you clarify something for me? Was she giving, was he stealing access just because he could see things laying around the house or was she giving him access and she just didn't know what he was going to do with it? I think it's a little bit of both. Um, I think he got her social security number from her when they were doing a loan document together. She's co-signed on things for him before. Okay. And then he took that and ran with it. Exactly. So her name is on all the credit cards. Is his name on the credit cards too? Or he just opened them in her name and he spent the money? It's all, everything is in her name. You know, even the quick cash accounts. Okay. Yeah. So what I would do is I'd probably pull her credit report, put a freeze on it too, just because he has. We did do that. Good. Okay. We did freeze it. Good. So pull that credit report and it's going to take you guys, it's going to be so frustrating, but going through line by line of this debt to see what is, what did she take out? Because you said she has some credit cards from old lady credit card debt is what you said. Figure out like, yeah, what really is hers from an amount standpoint and an account standpoint, whatever she did not sign up for, I highlight that and I would not pay on that because what you guys can do is go And, you know, With the court order is to send letters to these companies to say it was fraudulent and that she should not be held responsible to these. And so from a legal perspective. But now I am curious, John, in order for all of that to go through, I don't know where the law steps in on his side, right to actually press charges that there was a criminal intent. And that's the part, yes. That you take that and that's how she like. If that is the case, and I'm not sure, and I think every state's law is different, but if you have to have, like a judge, you have to press charges against him in order to not pay these bills, you guys may have to go through criminally to convict him so that she doesn't owe 75 of the $100,000, right? That she probably was. Right. was stolen from. Yeah, I might speak to a lawyer about this and find out what the best course of action is because, I mean, it's 100% criminal. Yes, yes. You know what I mean? And I might also contact Guardian Litigation. They might be able to help you going forward to sort some of this out and fight some of these battles for you. Yeah, this is really, really tough. So is she facing today, is she okay financially or is she struggling to make ends meet at this point? She's definitely struggling to make ends meet. Like she's able to, she's now going forward since we've kind of fixed everything. She's able to go forward at least making her bills, but she doesn't have really anything at all left over. Um, But, you know, she's also wanting to pay on those quick cash loans and all those other things. And so I think, I think you're right. You know, talking to an attorney would be the best course of action. And then, you know, we did file a report with the FTC. Mm-hmm, good, good. We just. Looked it up and kind of filed whatever they said and tried to give as much information as possible. And we haven't heard anything back yet. We don't know how all that works. So we're just kind of keeping an eye out, I guess. Yeah, I think I wouldn't pay anything on this until I've filed these charges correctly, until I've spoken to a lawyer to figure out what the next course of action is. I think if I'm in your shoes, I'm making sure that her day-to-day is okay and And that she's able to, like I said, make ends meet. And then I think this is just going to be a long web that you guys have to untangle, unfortunately. And it's just probably the more layers that you uncover, the more unsavory it's going to be. And from a relational standpoint, it's so sad, you know, that he took advantage of this woman who cared for him. Terrible. And helped raise him. And so there is that relational aspect, too, which is just so hard to face, I would assume, John. So. I think the worst part about it is she really wants to keep trying to contact him and talk to him and make sure he's okay. Yeah. I mean, out of the goodness of her heart, she is, but I would, yep, stay far away until things are cleaned up in order to rebuild trust in a relationship, which is a whole other tactic. But yeah, I would not, any level of her enabling that relationship, for sure, John, you're probably going to have to, you probably have a way clearer head than she does. To step in and make sure that he doesn't continue to take advantage, which doesn't sound like he can, but oh, man, what a mess. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.