First I have to say, this Go FundMe page goes against my very nature and sense of pride. However, given my own current limitations in being able to bail out my parents from this situation without trying to get personal bank loans and expose myself to an unstable financial standing, I must eat my pride and explore this option and ask for help.

Margaret and Renato, my parents, have fallen victim to the classic “Gift Card” scam. This began in mid-June 25 when my mother received a pop message on her laptop that her bank account and credit cards were hacked.

Long story short, my mother did not contact me, she decided to handle it on her own and began contact with these scammers who presented themselves as Citibank fraud department. These scammers convinced my mother for her own good and protection of her assets she needed to buy retail gift cards in small denominations and provide the “fraud department” with the gift card numbers and codes. This is essentially as good as handing them cash. She did this of her own free will, although under false pretenses, over a period of three months for a total of $ 70000 and over 110+ gift cards varying from $250-2500.

I only found out about this during my trip to the US to see my Mom & Dad with my kids in late October. My parents were on the verge of being evicted as they had not been able to pay rent in three months.

Upon finding this out, I started the process of submitting fraud reports to Citibank and Chase bank, filing a police report, closing down all her bank accounts and credit cards , opening up a new bank account and credit card over which I have control, and dealing with Social Security and my father’s pension so that their payments are routed to their new bank. We are still in the process of filing a complete police report with a full account of what transpired, however it is tough to get the full details from my mother as she is having trouble remembering all the details.

However, what I have found out subsequently is that this type of gift card fraud is common and NOT covered by credit card fraud protection as my mother was a willing participant and provided the information to the scammers of her own volition. Our only recourse at the moment is contacting each of the retailers for those 110+ gift cards in the hope that some of them may not have been fully used. This is a monumental task and to date, the ones we have checked have been used.

My last path now is to try and find a law firm that will take a case pro-bono to try to litigate some compromise solution with the credit card issuing banks, but this is unlikely as I have found though googling and chatgpt’ng.

Have also looked at class-action suits against the retailers for not having proper protections in place to catch and stop these types of patterned gift card purchases. One strike against us in this pursuit is time, such class actions could take years which my parents do not have, and the fact that the banks actually did contact my mother to inquire about the unusual purchasing pattern.

In the meantime, I have liquidated US assets on my side to pay their back rent and monthly expense and continue to do so. However, my assets are limited to cover a $70000 write off to put my parents back on their feet and on stable financial ground.

Thus, this Go FundMe page. My goal is try to keep them in their current Assisted Living facility and as comfortable as possible for as long as possible. Anything you can give to assist me in restoring their assets is of course greatly appreciated. I have purposely set up the Go FundMe page out of Sweden where gifts and donations are non-taxable so as not to create tax issue for my parents in the US. If anyone has any legal contacts they can recommend who might be willing to take on such a case, pro-bono, such referrals are welcome.

My hope with this Go FundMe is that it will serve as a warning to those with elderly parents that still control their own finances. When is it time to take the “keys to the car” from them? Refusal by a parent to release control of their finances to a trusted loved one or a trust is a tough one. You don’t want to force them to do something, they are your parents, not your children. But at some point, you need to be forceful. It only takes a moment or a lapse of critical thinking on their part to unleash a tragedy like this. Yes, it’s only money. But at the age of 82 and declining health, the impact could be a death sentence or take years from their lives if forced into a Medicaid nursing home situation versus some level of comfort in their final years.

I can’t give any concrete advice in terms of how and when is the right time beyond the obvious signs, Mom did not exhibit the obvious signs. I see now, I should have been more forceful, tried harder, and taken control.

Watch them more closely, offer, be more persistent, when they old school deflect and try to downplay things are alright, push back harder and take control before something like this happens.