/biz/ - Business & Finance

Boomer FIL bankrupted his family in less than 3 months

My boomer FIL not only lost all his families money but also went deep into debt in under three months.

He first fell for a weird investment scheme. He invested 500€ on some website that claimed to be able to multiply his "investment" in a few weeks. After watching some fake numbers on a fake website rise to astronomical heights, he decided to invest 50.000€ and then another 50.000€ into it. When his "investment" had skyrocketed to a 7-figure number, he tried to withdraw it but found himself unable to do so.

The investment company then contacted him and told him they would gladly sent him his money, but since this is an international transfer, he needs to put forward 5.000€ to cover transfer fees and taxes, which he gladly did. A week after they e-mailed him again and tried to tell him that his 5.000€ did not cover the whole fee and that they need more. Instead of sending more he decided to put his foot down and demanded they sent his money immediately.

They called him back telling him all they needed to were his bank details. So he literally gave them his card numbers, his online login and even gave them his 2-factor authentication code several times. Instead of giving him his millions, he got his savings and bank account drained into the deep, deep red. Literally as down as down will go. Since my FIL is the kind of boomer that likes to brag about how much credit he has available, this meant almost -50.000€.

When he found himself unable to literally pay for anything and his bank desperately calling him, he went to the bank manager who almost had a heart attack. He ended up going to the police to file a report, closed his account, got a new credit for the overdraft and got a new, non-compromised account.

And he e-mailed the scammers to demand his millions and threaten to sue them.