A Mother's Millions Lost to a Romance Scammer—And Her Family's Desperate Fight to Stop Her
A woman is about to send $15,000 to a man she has never met. Her son cannot stop her. Neither can the police, the banks, nor the mental health hotlines he's called in desperation.
The scam started small. Weeks ago, his mother sent $50 gift cards to someone who promised her romance and a life in Singapore. Then the requests grew. Now she sends $10,000 or more at a time. Her bank accounts are empty. She has started borrowing money and pawning her belongings. The family discovered the bleeding only after her accounts ran dry.
What the son describes is the hallmark of a love scam: the isolation, the gaslighting, the betrayal. His mother has turned against her children and closest relatives. She will not listen. The scammer has poisoned every relationship that might save her.
The son has filed police reports twice. The officer in charge has not responded to calls or emails. He asked the police to invoke the Protection From Spam Act. No reply. He called the banks asking what they could do to block transfers. Their options, they said, are limited.
He reached out to Mindline and the Institute of Mental Health. No concrete help came back.
His last option is legal. He is speaking to advisors about taking control of her finances, but only if he can prove she lacks mental capacity. He does not know if she meets that threshold. He will try anyway.
But the family faces a harder truth: they likely cannot stop the $15,000 transfer happening today. And they know it will not be the last one.
The scammer will invent new excuses. His mother will believe them. The son's fear is clear and rational. She could sell the HDB flat her late husband left her. A modest family's modest savings could disappear entirely into the hands of someone thousands of miles away.
The son is asking two questions: How do I stop this transfer? How do I pull my mother back into reality?
He has already tried every obvious answer. The system, it seems, has none left to give.