Hello!
I'm looking for advice for what I should do for/about my grandmother who is being defrauded. She is 85 years old, lives in her home unassisted, isn't very mobile (handicap sticker on car - relies on a cane), cannot maintain her home, has boxes of unopened mail (that she writes the date on the outside so she knows what day she got the mail - but is weeks/months behind on opening them).
We have "caught" her going to Walmart to wire money to random people before, and when confronted she says, "it's my business. I'm doing my business, not yours." She has asked other family member (father's cousin) for large amounts of cash so she can wire money to someone. Recently we had access to her credit cards statements (she doesn't know this), and she "has" MANY credit cards with bizarre transactions that aren't hers - gas purchases from out of state, iTunes purchases (she doesn't own a computer or a smart phone), etc. A few years ago she tried to wire money to Ecuador to "get my cousin out of jail for being caught with drugs", but luckily the worker at Walmart called her manager when my grandmother made some comment about this. She didn't think to call my cousin to see if he were somehow in Ecuador (he was not - it was a scam). The latest one we got out of her was, "Someone is getting married at my timeshare, so i needed to wire money to pay for the maintenance fees so they don't need to cancel their wedding." Total scam, I'm sure.
At Christmas this year at her house (anecdotally, she told us she quit vacuuming the floor so she hopes we brought slippers to wear - we aren't letting her host Christmas anymore no matter how much she insists), I saw her calendar handing on the side of her fridge and she has amounts of money with where she spent it written on the days of the calendar. This is probably a great idea if she thinks she is being defrauded - so she can track what SHE is actually paying, but she is regularly spending HUNDREDS of dollars per week. It was hard to read her writing, and I should I have shown someone in my family this calendar when I was there, but I can remember specifically on one day there was, "$83.xx Publishers Clearing House" - so she's just throwing her money away knowingly AND being scammed. Additionally, she has MULTIPLE timeshares that she pays for yearly despite not traveling out of state for the past 3-4 years. I have no idea how many she has, but it's more than 2 for sure - could be 10 or more, I'm not sure.
The issue is that my father and his siblings (2 sisters and a brother) are largely unwilling/unwanting to do anything about it. My father and his brother have power of attorney over her (they think, anyways, no one is 100% sure). They are coming from this with the perspective of, "Well, we ask her what she's doing, and she says it's none of our business, and that's true - it's her money." Or, "Well, what can we do? It's her money, if she wants to get scammed, she can!" I personally find this attitude repulsive and inappropriate.
I don't care if i get an inheritance from her or not - that's not my end game here. It IS her money, but her life MUST be getting destroyed by this? People are obviously opening credit cards in her name, she is losing tons of money, she can't keep up with her finances whatsoever - what a way to live?!!
What can *I* do to stop this insanity? I am thinking about reporting her to the county protective services, but I'm not sure if that's the correct course of action, or if i should try to talk to her, my uncles/aunts, or what should be my course of action. As always, I appreciate everyone's insight.