I am at a loss. I have lived with the lady I rent a room. From for 3 years. She is just as much my friend as she is my landlord. She is disabled and has home health aides to help her for 12 hours a day.
She is being scammed. A bit over a week ago, something happened with her MacBook and that began this ongoing situation. She is convinced that her personal information has been compromised (I have zero doubt it has been). She is also convinced that "Jeff" from Apple support is helping her counteract the hack/identity theft/etc. by going out and buying gift cards (pairs of $500 cards started at $1k, today he asked for $10k). She claims that this money is being put back in her account. I have no way to verify that, however.
Today her home health aide and I put our foot down and talked to her about the situation. She is refusing to let me go through any of the proper channels (locking credit, contacting her banks and other accounts, etc.). All I have been able to do is contact local police and tell them what is going on. They have agreed to refer the case to adult protective services. Her home health aide also contacted her agency and it sounds like they are doing the same.
My questions are 1) are there any other legal steps I can take without her consent or cooperation to protect her?
2) any suggestions for getting through to her to make her recognize this is a scam. I have tried referring her to government resources about gift card scams, I have tried pushing back on her logic and helping her see the very basic isolation strategies "Jeff" has been using on her. I am at a loss. She is absolutely convinced that continuing to purchase these gift cards is the only way to protect herself from further harm, to allow "Jeff" to catch the bad guys, and to make the situation go away.
EDIT: She has agreed not to have any more contact with "Jeff" and is gradually coming around to talking and letting me take the necessary steps to protect her information. Im guessing that there is a list somewhere of all the things I need to do and how to do them. But I am exhausted so if some kind soul would point me in the right direction, it would be very appreciated.
Submitted October 03, 2020 at 08:23PM by iMerel https://ift.tt/33xiZu1
