I want to share my mom's experience of being scammed.

(Long post)

She was scammed a total of three times.

The second and third times were the same scam.

The first time was a typical investment scam.

I found out because I forgot my phone when I went back to my parents' house.

I picked up my mom's phone and saw a bunch of text messages and verification codes.

I nervously told my mom it was a scam, but she said it wasn't and she planned to tell us later.

That night, I called my sister and discussed it with her, hoping to avoid being scammed too much.

My mom still didn't believe it was a scam, saying she made a lot of money. All her money, about 6.5 million, was invested.

Later, when she was told to contact the scam's customer service to get it back, they used the same old trick: she needed to transfer 10,000 US dollars to get it back.

That's when my mom realized she'd been scammed.

She didn't want to report it to the police because she was ashamed and afraid people would laugh at her; she felt stupid.

That's how the first scam ended.

My sister emphasized that you shouldn't add strangers on Line or Facebook.

My mom agreed.

Not long after, she was scammed a second time.

Many women, regardless of age, still dream of being a CEO—a rich and handsome CEO who will swindle them out of their money.

PS My mom is 70 years old.

The scammer said on Facebook that her photos were very beautiful,

and then started chatting with her on Line.

The scammer said she lived abroad,

and had poor health,

but had a lot of savings and a house in Taiwan,

and even showed my mom photos of fake bankbooks.

The scammer said she needed to see a doctor and asked my mom to buy game points to "cure" her illness (which she actually believed!).

She said she would pay all the money back once she returned to Taiwan.

There was also a fake daughter who claimed her father had high blood pressure and was dying, and asked my mom to keep buying game points.

When she went to the convenience store to buy them, the clerk obviously tried to stop her, but my mom wouldn't listen. Then she canceled her remaining US dollar fixed deposit of about 25,000 and used the money to buy game points. Number

That wasn't enough. The scammer kept saying they needed money, that he would die if they didn't help, and that they shouldn't let him die of illness.

My mother called 165 (a fraud hotline) to inquire,

and was told it was a scam and to ignore it.

My mother worried about what would happen if he really died.

Later, my mother sold all the gold jewelry my father had given her, about 400,000 yuan, and used it all to buy game points.

My mother was completely broke. Then the scammer asked her to swipe her credit card. My mother accumulated about 450,000 yuan in game points at convenience stores.

The card was maxed out, and she couldn't pay the bills.

My mother went to the post office to cancel the life insurance policy. The bank clerk called the police. When the police arrived, they asked my mother if she wanted to call the police, but she refused.

The post office only allowed her to withdraw enough to pay the minimum premium. She paid the money with the police watching her pay.

Then, before the Lunar New Year last year, my mother, penniless, told my sister first.

She seemed to have been scammed.

The post office wouldn't let her cancel the contract; her daughter had to accompany her. That's why my mother revealed the scam.

To be honest, my sister and I were furious. How could she have been scammed? We deleted my mother's Facebook account.

We accompanied my mother to the post office, got the life insurance money back, paid off the credit card debt, and put the money in her account for me to manage. We only gave her a fixed amount each month, and we thought this scam was over.

Then came the third scam.

Until last September, my mother texted me that she had something important to say.

I thought there was a problem with my mother's health checkup. My sister was traveling abroad at the time. I just told my sister, and then I ran back to my parents' house to check on things.

They told me that a scammer had sent me a picture claiming that $200,000 had been transferred, but it was stuck in the bank and they needed $10,000 to unlock it, and they wanted to get the money from me.

My mom had contacted the scammer again.

She saves up her monthly allowance,

and uses it to buy points for the scammer.

This time she was only scammed out of $40,000.

My sister and I were furious.

Why won't she listen to us?

It's not about the amount.

Then we decided to log my mom's account into my phone to see if there were any unusual activity. If we found she was contacting the scammer again, we would delete her LINE account.

In December, we discovered that my mom was contacting the scammer again. My mom had saved the scammer's LINE account... I memorized the ID.

Even after we blocked and deleted her, she would add him back and chat with him again, constantly asking when the scammer would repay the money, or how much money he needed. My mom said she didn't have any money left to repay.

After deleting my mom's Line account, she couldn't find the scammer anymore.

My mom never considered him a scammer.

She treated him like a lover, an online lover who borrowed money.

She just thought he would repay the money.

After all this, my sister and I have less and less trust in my mom. Sometimes I even feel a strong hatred for her, and I don't want our only house to be scammed too.

On a side note,

Sometimes I feel sorry for my dad. He passed away less than three years ago, and my mom... My money was all gone.

My mom is frugal and a bit stingy, both towards my dad and sister. Dad pays for the mortgage, car loan, our tuition, and our allowances. Mom saves her earnings, and when we need her to pay, she says the money is in a fixed deposit and can't be touched. But when it came to the scam, she was very generous.

My sister and I often think that our mom is also a victim, yet we often scold her. But she never believes us and keeps lying to us, countless times.

The victims are sad, but we, the victims' families, are suffering too.

For those who lack discernment online, don't go online. If you encounter strange Line messages or private messages, talk to friends and family more.