Once they get their hooks into you, it never ends.....I came home the other day and my wife filled me in on the latest in the neverending saga of bloodsucking. The other day the scammers showed up at my father in law's door and told him the spaces for urns containing ashes he "owned" in a Columbarium had been sold.
The three louts who visited my Dad in law told him that although the spaces had been sold, in order to realize the money from the deal, he had to purchase his share of the land under them first. After that, he'd realize his millions. They immediately relieved him of $10,000 NT for the "processing fee" for the "sale". Since he doesn't have on hand the $500K they told him he'd need to purchase the land (the younger generation has thankfully taken over management of his accounts), he started ringing up relatives.
My sister in law ran over to his house and got the company name from him. She whipped out the newspaper and showed him: 2o odd people from that and related firms had been arrested in land scams that week. Probably the gang needed the additional money for bail so members could flee to China and judged my Pa to be an easy mark. My father in law held firm: the sale was real, and he just needed another $500,000 to complete it. His sister, probably the toughest, sharpest businessman I know, rushed over to explain that it was a scam. All three of his daughters called him. But still he won't believe anyone in his family. We even had a local dai shu, a kind of paralegal who specializes in land sales, explain to him that the title certificates they showed him were obvious fakes. No dice.
The scammers showed up the next day but my father in law's eldest sister was present and waiting for them. She herded them back out the door; she's in her 80s and smokes cigars and does shots and is afraid of nothing and no one. She read my father in law the riot act and then spent the day on the phone with my wife, strategizing.....
He's blown enough money on these scams to put all five of his grandchildren through college and have enough left over to buy them all small apartments when they graduate.
It's just so incredibly painful...
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I know this might sound ... disrespectful... but is your father in law mentally normal? How can you be deceived x times without learning from it?
ReplyDeleteThere's a sucker born every minute. I've come across them too, people who buy into scams that are either ridiculous, or sound potentially genuine but are easily exposed if you do any research.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad but that's life. There's not much we can do about it.
Well, I suppose you could always offer a link to the Spanish- designed fish market up in Fugee.
ReplyDeletehttp://forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4204
Next time, give me a call. I have a shovel and know the perfect place to bury these creeps.
ReplyDeleteI feel for you. It's always hard to have a family member not only believe the scammers, but also not even trust/believe his family's judgment over the scammers. It's a shame the media doesn't do a catch the predator series with these guys.
ReplyDeleteMy boss's parents refuse to have credit cards because of this. That's a pretty smart idea in Taiwan.
So sorry, Michael.
ReplyDeletewhy no police? scamming is legal in taiwan?
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame the tougher than nails aunt-in-law(?) didn't have law enforcement come and wait with her. Those stragglers will be out there collecting from their next mark.
ReplyDeleteI want to say it's diminished capacity, too, but he seems to know what he wants to do. We deal with a similar situation with regard to profligate spending.
ReplyDeleteIn our case it's just a case of plain old stubbornness.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeletewhy no police? scamming is legal in taiwan?"
maybe reason why philippines deports them to china but police here are afraid dpp will accuse them of violating the human rights of there hero scammers! ROFL!
levine
@anonymous Police? rofl Ya gotta be kidding. Taiwan police are too busy catching particular miscreants turning right on red lights who look both ways and check every angle before turning, as opposed to catching really dangerous traffic offenders, like lunatic speeders revving up at 150 km. an hour during rush hour.
ReplyDeleteAs for catching scammer, are you...um...kidding? They aren't particularly good at catching scammers in the U.S. or Canada (they're getting a little better at rounding up the ones in Montreal, these days, but still...
why no police? scamming is legal in taiwan?
ReplyDeleteScamming is a financial crime, and therefore most Police forces put it at the bottom of their list of priorities. It's also hard to prosecute because the people involved never give their real names or addresses.
It is not so surprising to see people repeatedly fall for scams.
ReplyDeleteLook at how successful organized religion has become.
Mental fitness indeed!
Defrauded people in Taiwan often turn to the local triad for help. Not a joke, I've seen it many times with my own eyes.
ReplyDeleteSad that some low-lives would prey on the elderly like that.
ReplyDeleteIt might be good to make sure he never has more than a few hundred dollars in the house at any time.
ReplyDeleteWe seldom have NT$10,000 cash in the house, typically a third of that. With ATMs on every corner, why risk it?
Just out of curiosity, what kind of sentence do you suppose a court would impose on somebody who kills one or two of these guys out of momentary rage?
ReplyDelete