https://www.news.com.au/finance/shattered-aussie-grandma-loses-entire-850000-superannuation-savings-months-before-retirement/news-story/6c4e492090fd4e480b5d3e232822f67b

Hi, my name is Andrew, I’m raising funds for my mum, who is 81 years old, was planning to retire at the end of 2026 and was recently scammed out of her entire superannuation.

Mum has worked since she was just 15 years old. She raised two sons as a single mother, renting, working hard her entire life, and never had the benefit of government housing or financial assistance. After more than six decades of working, she had finally planned to retire at the end of this year.

Sadly, what should have been a time of enjoying her retirement has become an absolute nightmare.

In January, Mum joined an online chat group focused on stock market investing. Over the following six months, she was gradually groomed into trusting the people in the group. They provided detailed investment advice, including which stocks to buy and when to sell. At first, the investments appeared genuine, and some of them made decent gains.

As Mum’s trust and confidence grew, the group became increasingly enthusiastic about two particular stocks. Members were strongly encouraged to invest as much as they could.

Believing she was making a sound investment for her retirement, Mum made the heart breaking decision to cash out her entire superannuation and put it into these investments.

The value initially rose, giving her even more confidence that she had made the right decision.

Then, without warning, the stocks collapsed, falling to approximately 1% of what victims had paid for them.

We have since learned that what Mum appears to have fallen victim to is a sophisticated pump-and-dump investment scam, where fraudsters artificially drive up the price of a stock, encourage victims to invest, they then sell their own holdings, causing the price to collapse and leaving investors with devastating losses.

For Mum, this isn’t simply money lost on a share transaction, she lost everything, a lifetime of hard work and being responsible.

She spent more than 60 years working, raising a family and carefully building towards a secure retirement. At 81, she now faces the prospect of living solely on the Government pension, with the superannuation she had worked so hard to build gone.

Mum is devastated. She feels betrayed and frightened about what the future now holds. Most of all, it is heart breaking to see someone who has worked so hard for her entire life lose the security she had hoped would finally allow her to retire with dignity.

I am setting up this fundraiser to help Mum regain some of the financial security she lost and give her the opportunity to enjoy the retirement she deserves.

Any contribution, no matter how large or small, would mean an enormous amount to Mum and our family. If you aren’t in a position to donate, simply sharing this fundraiser would also help tremendously.

Thank you for taking the time to read Mum’s story, and for any support you can offer.

Please help Linda.