The MIL was nearly scammed.

There are 16 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 3,145 times. The latest Post () was by UK Man.

1st Official Post

    My 84 year old MIL nearly 'bought' a new car yesterday however as my wife had hidden her bank cards to prevent such an event from happening she couldn't go ahead with the ''purchase of a lifetime''.


    Seems she got a call from a gentleman in Buenos Aires offering her a new car in return for a one off payment of 5000 pesos. From then on she only had to make regular payments of an unknown amount which would give her the chance of having the new car within weeks . Sad thing is despite her once being a well respected notary she still thinks the offer was too good to turn down.


    I told the missus to see if the phone company can block such cold calls.

    This certainly could have been disastrous if you and Mrs. UK Man hadn’t been on your toes. What a constant job you have, UK Man !


    So, to the scam: do you think there was an actual car? A stolen one? She wouldn’t get the keys until she’d paid multiple large payments?

    Quote from Rice


    So, to the scam: do you think there was an actual car? A stolen one? She wouldn’t get the keys until she’d paid multiple large payments?

    I suspect the last one.

    Considering she has a car already which she never uses it makes you wonder what was going through her mind. She said to my wife it was a good investment. :huh:

    • Official Post

    Once, my grandpa was scammed mercilessly.

    He was an illiterate man, a laborer all his life. When he retired, he still kept working as a mason.

    During a lunch break in a countryside villa, a car stopped and started talking with him and another two colleagues about the same age as him.


    The guys on the car said they were selling VHS players (this was in the '90s) for a discounted price. My grandfather thought it would be nice to have a VHS player for when my younger cousin visited his place. He paid and got a box in exchange... except that when he arrived home he found inside milk boxes.... filled with water.


    I think he was scammed 50,000 liras, which are about €50 in today's money (I know it is not the exact exchange rate, it is just to give an idea of the amount). He was so mortified, he tried to laugh at it, but I could tell he truly felt ashamed to have fallen for such a simple scam.

    I still think it's terrible to scam an old man trying to buy a gift for his grandson, even if the money was no big deal in that case.


    My grandmother was also scammed because of her Alzheimer's dementia. She was approached on the street by a lady with a sad story, who convinced her to go to the bank to 'lend' her some money. When my uncle realized that she had withdrawn a few thousand euros for no apparent reason, he went to face the bank teller (my uncle was a bank officer, too).


    The teller simply said that since my mother came in person, she had every right to withdraw the money. My uncle said that he should have noticed that it was an old lady being conned by a foreign woman...

    Yes the oldies can be vulnerable. MIL has been coming up with some crazy schemes lately which my wife suspects have been instigated by a 'friend' she has. This friend never used to bother with her, it's only recently she's appeared on the scene hence why my wife thinks she's up to no good.

    Sounds like one of these saving plans that were popular a few years back.


    My good lady thought they were great . I said wait a wee minute this is ca con , you pay in but you have no commitment from them to supply .


    With inflation they disappeared


    Maybe they are back under a new modus operandi

    Quote from Splinter

    Luckily my 83 year old MIL is very sharp, is nobody's fool and fortunately, with Adri being a very clever accountant, she helps her with those tricky, every day money transactions. (nothing here is simple)

    I couldn't see her falling for one of these tricks.

    Glad to hear it. :thumbup:


    My MIL was the same up until a year or two ago. She'd drive herself everywhere, go out for dinner and kept up to date with world events. Then she started to change slowly but it was noticeable. She's not completely gaga, just comes up with some very odd ideas.

    That sounds very similar. What's worrying is the amount of calls she receives offering all sorts of stuff. She even took up an offer of knives through a promotion she saw in Clarin. We ended up with 20 of every style of kitchen knife you can imagine. They ended up costing a fortune. ^^

    Quote from GlasgowJohn

    UK Man


    If the suegra has a mobile phone that allows you and the wife to contact her , disconnect the other one. Pull the plug out from the wall.That way she won't get no bloody calls from unwanted salesmen...

    The last call she got was on her mobile.

    I was asking the missus if they operated a similar system here to the one in the UK where you can get these sorts of calls blocked but I suspect that's wishful thinking.

    Truth be told we suspect she reads things and calls them up so she might just be as guilty as them. Once they have your number they probably pass it on to others.

    Quote from Rice

    Perhaps it’s time for your wife to take complete control of her bank accounts?

    She more or less controls them due to the business side of things however this is making MIL suspicious. Which in turn nakes me mad as I know how much the missus has turned things around since we came to live here. It took her a few years to sort the mess out her mother had made. I could write a book. One guy who rented one of the MIL's properties was running a cafe for years without paying any rent!! MIL aka Mother Theresa said she felt sorry for them.

    Quote from Splinter

    I've got a nice Honda she might like.

    8)

    I'll give you MIL's number if you want. :D

    • Official Post
    Quote from UK Man

    MIL aka Mother Theresa said she felt sorry for them.

    We had a similar issue with my grandmother in Italy. She had a shop on the ground floor of her house, it was a school supply / fishery item store for 40 years. When she retired, she started renting the place and a small apartment she owned next to it.

    Needless to say, they both were in poor condition, so attracted only people with limited resources and lot of troubles.


    Despite being on the money all her life, she cut incredible slack to these people because they told her very sad stories and she pitied them.

    When she died and the truth was uncovered, it was a ruddy business (cit. UK Man) to sort it out. The money was never recovered, we had to hire a lawyer just to kick them out. Eventually, we succeeded, but we left wondering if she just got into something too big for her and was ashamed to ask for help to her family, or if she really fell for those scammers.


    My grandmother was almost illiterate, so I am still debating which one was the real reason. Oh, and she lost a lot of €€€ when she bought 'tanto bonds' (Argentinian bonds) upon advice of her 'trusted' local bank. Another 'hole' that was discovered after she passed.

    Quote from serafina

    We had a similar issue with my grandmother in Italy.

    That's a shame.


    Must admit I get the feeling my MIL allowed such things to make her feel better in herself. Which makes me wonder when she was a notary if she wasn't as honest as she made herself out to be and this was some sort of penance. ^^

    When we came to live here my wife sorted them out...pay up or leave were the choices she gave them. Needless to say the bad payers all left and she hasn't had any problems since with their replacements.