Published on 12, July, 2020
My son who is 26 years old with high-functioning autism has been a victim of an online scam where scammers offer him a very high salary, allowance, company car and accommodation to produce music record labels for him. Since March 2024, he has been paying the fraudsters a few thousand US dollars for various things such as artist ID card, delivery charges, registration fee for artist conference, etc., etc. Although we reported it to the Police (Action Fraud for cyber crime), he denies that he is being scammed and refused to receive help. This has been going on for 4 months and as his savings is depleted, he is getting frustrated but still refuses to talk about it with the Police, his therapist or his parents. He has been living with us and has no real concept about money, no need to pay rent or buy food and every penny he earns from temporary jobs is kept in his account. We don't know how he would survive once he realises that he would never get his money back. The care and attention the scammers give him could be what he is craving for. He screamed and cried a few days ago, out of frustration, but still would not open himself up to anyone. I cannot find a support group for online scam victims and need help on this. Once he knows that he is not alone, he may be willing to tell others about his situation.
Oh Elaine what a horrible situation these scammers are evil how they prey on the vulnerable.
The only thought I have had is can you somehow message them and tell them you know what they are doing.
I think there are also support groups that help people that have been scammed.I am so upset for you and hate this sort of thing.
When I get the odd scamming call I try and keep them on the phone for ages to delay them phoning someone else
I feel for your son, and also for you (his parents) being understandably worried and concerned about the situation your son has found himself in.
If your son genuinely has no concept of money, the only solution may be for you to look into applying for Power of Attorney, at least where your son's finances are concerned. It's unlikely that this would result in your son getting back the money he was scammed out of, but it would at least mean that you could help to prevent him from getting scammed in the future.The drawback is that if you did take control of your son's finances, then I doubt he would be too thrilled about it, and he might possibly resent you for taking away some of his independence.You say that your son doesn't contribute financially towards the household. Do you think if this was to change, it might go some way to improving his concept of money? In the event that he moves out of the family nest, knowing how to budget and manage his finances will be an invaluable skill. I'm just thinking that if your son is made to start contributing financially to the household, he may be less likely to get taken in by scammers, as he won't have as much money at his disposal to play around with. It's just a thought.
And, another thing, Firefox browser allows for the generation of security-generated passwords; at the touch of your fingertips. Just remind him to save the passwords on his browser.
Perhaps he should get a more bulletproof email system, with better Spam protection.
I use FastMail, $30 US per year, and is better for blocking spam. Also, they had the option to pay them via Bitcoin. Not sure, however, if that option still exists.
Hopefully he opens up about it, so that something can finally be done about it. Your son giving away thousands of dollars to fraudsters every month is not a good sign. Hopefully they can track the account that he's sending the money to. There's probably a lot more victims out there.
My friend was scammed in a pyramid scheme, and that included her family and friends. There was a guest speaker that visited her house, and a bunch of people there (including me), as the audience. I was completely engaged, until the guest speaker mentioned that "this isn't a pyramid scheme" and laughed about it, making the audience laugh as well. But a cog in my mind haulted, and I wondered... But what if this is a pyramid scheme? And then I was completely disenchanted after that thought, and got bored. The only other person who was bored, was a little boy, because a conference with grown ups might not be so fun for him, so I was just making him giggle and laugh to pass the time. My friend who worshipped this guest speaker like a goddess, didn't like what I was doing, and abruptly stopped us. She'd fetch water for the goddess. She'd offer food for the goddess. But when it came down to us, nothing. She thought I was being so rude by ignoring the goddess and playing with the little boy. I was still open to the idea of the business, but ended up feeling disgruntled by the whole thing when I left.
A year later, she messaged me saying sorry, and that her entire family was scammed on account of her, and she feels very miserable about it. She remembers that I was the only one who wasn't enchanted by the idea of that business, and I suppose she wished she would have had similar levels of skepticism, instead of completely believing and falling for such a thing.
I really hope your son says something to the police, so something could be done about it.
Oh no! I'm so sorry. Could there be a way to stop the bank allowing money to go to a bitcoin exchange? Like you say, your main problem here is that he is in denial. I don't know what to advise...
not really...he pays them by Bitcoin
I don't know - but maybe you have a right (duty) to report a scam to them. You would need to have the account details of the scammer, I suppose.
he is an adult and has some capacity to manage his own account. I don't have a power of attorney. Can I still talk to his bank?
Oh Elaine, that sounds awful for you both. Lots of people fall for scams whether autistic or not. You have described a really difficult situation. Are you able to report this to his bank so they do not pay out anything else to those awful people?