Ask Lemmy

Or... Hear me out. Maybe, just maybe this lonely, beautiful, youthful 40 something CEO, who can't dial a phone number really IS in love with your 72 year old dad. I mean stranger things have happened. Either way, this could be fun.

You know... Just a thought.

Among your other points, a wealthy 40 year old CEO looking for romance is going to pick a guy below her age, not one who's 72.

Pretty sure the only organ they'll harvest is his wallet but they can cut pretty deep financially, and break his heart.

Know any real women who might make a better match for him?

Man, if I had a nickel for every time I saw this:

Wrong number ✅
Beautiful Asian woman living in LA ✅
Owns her own business, jewelry/fashion design/finance ✅
Mysteriously keeps the conversation going even when told it's a wrong number ✅

Tries a romance angle to suck you in to a crypto "investment" in 3-2-1...

Typically run out of boiler room call centers in Myanmar using, essentially, slave labor:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2d3w90x86po

Some variety of a so-called Pig Butchering Scam.

She’s probably going to say her car/something broke down and she needs money ASAP to meet him.
Also, lol @ CEO of a company that doesn’t have any device with a working camera…

What should we expect next?

Likely she will cancel the trip at the last second and claim to have a work or family emergency. Then she will need money.

Or shortly before the trip she will share an investment opportunity and offer him to join her in it. It will turn out to be fake.

Or both.

sounds like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_butchering_scam it's in early phase so far

One of my uncle is currently involved in scams like this one with multiple women at the same time. They all love him, they all want his money. Last time I checked, he lost most of his money and almost became homeless.

I hope you can do anything to your father because he will lose a lot.

Scamming old people has grown into a massive and well organized industry that brings in billions in profits per year. It is a huge problem that has continued to get worse. As others have said, this is 100% a scam. They will inevitably use any number of techniques to extract money from him. It is very possible they already have and he just hasn't told you yet, it is not uncommon for the victims to be secretive about what the scammers are getting them to do.

This is a scam. 1000%. Do what you gotta do to stop it.

Good opportunity for him to say he doesn’t have the money right now, can she buy him the plane tickets and get himself a nice little free trip to LA. She’ll obviously say no, and boom he’s out of it.

Yes it's a scam. Likely there will be money requests forthcoming.

web camera is not working

In 2026 that's the most obvious sign it's a scam. However even these days you can have live AI visual and audio filters.

My dad is on his third one of these. The first one eventually said she could help him buy Bitcoin at which point he realized it was probably a scam and stopped talking to her. I can't remember what happened with the second, but the third invited him out to the west coast so he could drive her fancy super car. I'm guessing before it gets that far she'll bring up money and he'll realize it's a scam again.

I'm not too worried about my dad yet because he doesn't get too invested in the whole thing and isn't one to send money to people, but I plan on bringing it up if he ever brings up sending money to, or visiting one.

Deepfakes combined with a romance scam. Pretend to be someone with a legitimate background that you father can verify himself, legitimised with synthetic images and voice (video isn't quite there in terms of reliable quality, so they stick to static images), some of which will even contain current dates/events and even his name written out, all to make it seem like a real person.

The scammer is playing the long con, building a relationship and slowly working towards a situation where your father wants to give them money, or even slips up and provides them with some sort of access to his accounts. It's not going to be sudden or obvious. They may not even ask directly, but craft a scenario where your father offers himself.

https://youtu.be/srr0rRgF2Fw

https://youtu.be/ACijyfS3ya4

Here's the thing: Even if she could do a video call, that doesn't really prove anything.

Having said that, she's 40 and she's a CEO. If her "webcam is not working" she has the means to rectify that quickly. Not to mention, there's basically no chance a 40 year old CEO of an international organization doesn't have a phone that can do video calls, let alone no laptop/device capable of it. It's pretty much going to be essential for that type of job. She'd buy a new laptop, new phone, get the existing stuff fixed.

Yes it's a scam. There are many variations of how these work and there's not always a one size fits all script. They'll say whatever it takes and it could be anything.

Some will ask for money directly. Some will lure the target into crypto scams. This general type of romance scam typically involves building trust over time, and then suddenly concocting an urgent situation requiring money. The idea is that they need help ASAP, and if the target doesn't act quickly, the scam artist is going to be in a lot of danger/trouble. For instance, she might claim that she traveled abroad and something happened (ex: lost passport, stolen purse) that requires lots of money now. Or maybe because she's stuck in another country without ID, she needs someone in the USA (your dad) to cover some bogus financial transaction for the company or they will face big fines/bankruptcy/lose the biggest client/etc.

Also, people who are being scammed often lie about whether or not they've sent money. Deep down they know they may suspect they've been taken advantage of and feel embarrassed/ashamed about it. Even people that you feel 100% would never lie to you about that, will lie about that up to a point.

You are to be applauded for watching out and caring for your father - I”m sorry for both of your loss of your dear mother and I know, you are hurting as much as he is…

You will have to tread carefully, depending upon his level of dementia -since he firmly believes this scam and will not respond well to being told he’s wrong and trying to convince him

The best approach will be to gather some solid empirical evidence on paper - do your research on everything you can get about the company - look at the company website suspiciously (source code) - everything you can find with her name, her phone number, the company address (on Google maps) etc…

be sure to do this research anywhere other than social media, everything on social media will support her story/lies - It will take some work, but will be worth it for when you talk to him

Once you have the evidence in hand and are ready to talk with your father, began by telling him how much you love him and care for him and will do anything to protect him - make sure it’s all about him and not money -

Then you can show him the evidence and help ease his way to understanding-

This is all a part of his grieving the loss of his life partner, and trying to ease his own pain

I wish you well in taking care of your father, please DM me and tell me how it went

(Source: an elderly man who went through much of the same with his elderly father)

A lot of the comments are about the scam and not about what you should do to help your father.

Make him aware that it's a "romance scam" and that this was set up from the beginning for money. Tell him what to expect and hopefully when this person finally starts with the money requests he will remember what you said and understand for himself what is happening.

Second, the biggest concern would be his inability to get out of the situation and feeling pressured in the moment to give an answer or send money. I don't specifically have a recommendation for how he can avoid this, but generally it's best if people have their own transportation and can leave at any time.

Also, I would stay in touch with him frequently. He is interacting with this person. Talk on the phone several times a day. It's going to be impossible for him to walk away unless you can help him.

Edit: typo

fwiw sometimes the people playing the "bait" are themselves victims of human trafficking. If they don't bring in enough money, they are forced into prostitution. source.

You should start asking for money. Just $50 see what happens.

LA is relatively close to the Mexican border.

Nobody's interested in a 72 year old's organs.

I'd be most worried that it's a kidnapping for ransom, since seniors generally have savings and retirement assets, since they'd be alone with strangers in unknown territory.

There is a 0.001% chance this isn't a scam. Make sure he doesn't give money and has backup plans of what he would do in LA if this is a scam. If you are going to LA anyway then meeting someone can make it more enjoyable. If it doesn't work out (either a scam or real but the don't click) he can enjoy his backup plan. I want to visit the USS Iowa there someday as one example of something to fill a day. I assure you there is more and I've not even been there

Hand off the information to Kitboga so he can make some videos about it.

I've seen this scam a lot on Tinder.

I'm not sure what the goal really is, but it is most definitely a scam. At some point, they will ask for his identity to be verified through a PAID SERVICE. The scam is either to get people using the service or is to get your credit card info through a phony service site; IDK beyond that, as the moment they had asked for that shit I block and report them and I've come to recognize the bullshit before it gets that far now.

It can be days, weeks, even MONTHS before they actually ask you to spend money. That's what makes these scams so fucked up; they often seem like genuine people for a long period of time before suddenly switching gears.

These scams can get fairly complex. Sometimes they even employ models to video chat to make the whole thing seem legitimate.

Sometimes these are people who are trapped inside of a compound where they can't leave unless they scam enough victims.

Jim Browning gives us a behind the scenes view on how these work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-Y1h9rTUs

Skipping ahead to 4 minutes will show how they typically use the call/text by "accident" method.

Another good video here by Pleasant Green: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS1ge8-31IY

If it's none of the above could be a marriage / immigration thing. Met a dude once who had married like six times. Would find needy women with money, woo them, divorce them and then collect.