Your Future Is Worth the Sacrifice

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

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Rachel Cruze (0:12)

Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network in the FAIRWINDS Credit Union Studio. This is The Ramsey Show. And I'm Rachel Cruz hosting This Hour with Jade Warshaw, and we are answering your questions about life and money. So give us a call at 888-825-5225.

First, we have John in Anchorage, Alaska. Nope, wrong one, hold. There we go. Hey, John, how are you?

SPEAKER_3 (0:43)

I'm doing great. How are you guys?

Rachel Cruze (0:45)

Hi, we're doing great. How can we help?

SPEAKER_3 (0:47)

So my aunt, this is such an odd story, has been scammed for about $100,000 by my biological brother.

Rachel Cruze (0:55)

Oh my gosh.

Jade Warshaw (0:57)

I did not think that you would say it was flesh and blood.

SPEAKER_3 (1:01)

It sure is. He's been living with her, and us and the family all just found out about this very recently. We found out she was three months behind on her mortgage. We are partially caught up on that.

She's on Social Security and retirement. We're just trying to figure out how we can fix the situation. We've already removed him from the situation, and we're just trying to figure out how do we go forward.

Rachel Cruze (1:29)

How did he do it? Did he get her to put money in some account? Was he forging her signature on things? How did it happen?

SPEAKER_3 (1:38)

All of the above. He not only got money out of her by asking and by manipulating, but he also forged her Social Security number and her information to open some accounts.

Jade Warshaw (1:53)

Over what period of time did this happen? Was this over the course of years or did this happen relatively fast?

SPEAKER_3 (1:58)

Over the last 12 to 16 months, I want to say.

Jade Warshaw (2:01)

Okay. Was he caretaking for her? Was he taking care of her? What was the nature of their relationship together?

SPEAKER_3 (2:08)

No. She has basically raised me and my brother as kids.

After I moved out, my brother stayed. My brother has lived with her since he turned 18 He's only 24, I think. He's 24, and she is 76 She's my great aunt.

Jade Warshaw (2:25)

I'm so sorry this happened. So where does this leave her? It's $100,000 that she's been tricked out of, deceived out of.

She's got Social Security. What other assets does she have?

SPEAKER_3 (2:38)

So she has her house, which obviously isn't paid off, but I think she owes like $260 on it, and she's got, I think it's worth $500-ish.

So she's got a lot of equity in that. She owes probably about $100,000 in credit cards, partially from him, partially from her, just old people credit card stuff, right?

Rachel Cruze (3:00)

Okay. Well, have you guys pressed legal charges against him, John?

SPEAKER_3 (3:06)

So what we did is we went in and we filed a restraining order against him so we could get him removed from the house. He has been served with that by the police. There's a court date coming up soon and we will essentially be pleading our case and saying, hey, we want to get a long-term protective order against him or against him from her.

We basically are just trying to keep them away from each other. I think my aunt still partially believes that he's going to give her this money back.

Jade Warshaw (3:35)

Well, have you disputed, it sounds like the credit cards, he did that. Have you disputed that with the creditors and fraud?

SPEAKER_3 (3:44)

As for the creditors, we haven't dug deep enough into that. It's all very recent.

But we have dug into her bank account, at least those things, and we fixed a lot of her overdraft charges, so she's got $0 in her account. But all of her bills are at least paid now. She's still behind on her mortgage and behind on some of her other payments. But he was taking out quick cash in her name with her social security number.

Jade Warshaw (4:10)

Wow. So can you clarify something for me?

Was he stealing access just because he could see things laying around the house, or was she giving him access and she just didn't know what he was going to do with it?

SPEAKER_3 (4:25)

I think it's a little bit of both. I think he got her social security number from her when they were doing a loan document together. She's co-signed on things for him before.

SPEAKER_5 (4:36)

And then he took that and ran with it.