Diane Lyman

Help Our Mother Regain Life-Savings and Dignity

This last week our 86-year-old mother, Diane, suffered a crushing financial blow at the hands of heartless scammers. She had over $19,000 stolen from her because she was trying to save her beloved grandson. Let me explain. Diane received a phone call from someone fraudulently identifying themselves as her grandson. He said he was in jail because of a car accident and begged her not to let anyone know. He asked for money for a lawyer to represent him. Over the next few days, she was bombarded with phone calls, including one that said her grandson had killed a young mother and her unborn child. Each call was accompanied by a request for several thousand dollars, cash, to be sent overnight.

Our mom had a recent fall and is not steady on her feet. Diane somehow went to the bank three times within the same week and withdrew cash without anyone at the bank being alerted. Our mother said to her daughter Kelly while at the police station, "When I tried to call Christian (the attorney) to make sure he received the money I sent, and the number was disconnected, I knew I had been scammed," and then she began to cry.

How can you blame or bring further shame to a woman who thought she was coming to the aid of her grandson? The determination of an older woman that takes ten minutes to just get in and out of her car. Then following these complicated directions in every detail is a testament to the independent and caring person Diane has been her entire life. The enormous love for her family and her resolve to save her grandson caused Diane to fall for this evil scheme.

Diane now has less than a third of her small life savings left. That and her monthly Social Security is all she has to survive. We now need help from our community of friends and family. If you can donate to help replace a part of these savings, it will help our mother make ends meet. Maybe, more importantly, Diane will see she is part of a loving community, which may counter her shame and fear.

If anyone can offer advice about anything that can be done to get this message out and how to investigate further, please share it with us.

We want to also thank the Schaumburg police department for doing all they were able to investigate.

We hope this story can warn others with elderly relatives. Please share this story with them, and help them put safeguards on their accounts.

Thank you for reading through this,

Please reach out to your older loved ones,

Mike