Advice on how to handle a Facebook Scammer?

[Disney Addicted]

My Dad has been targeted by a facebook scammer. I would never have imagined my Dad falling for such a thing. He's 77. My Mom fell victim to a couple of FB ad scams a few years ago and I remember him being so mad. My brother fell for a facebook scammer years ago as well, and again, my Dad was livid. My brother sent bought her stuff and a flight before coming to his senses.

Now my Dad! My mom passed away 3 years ago. He's been getting into computers and the internet since she passed away. This woman reached out to him on FB. She lives in London, England for heaven's sakes. He told me about her originally and I warned him she was a scammer. He said he knew and he was just jerking her chain. He swore he was not going to give her money. This has been going on for at least 2 weeks. I keep telling him to cut her out! Every time he chats with her, he's just giving her fresh info. I told him by adding her to his friends' list, he just gave her access to HIS friends' list and they may think she's real...

My brother phoned this morning to say Dad asked him to how to set up an Amazon account so he could buy a $100 gift card and send it to her. He freaked out on Dad and told him no way. I have Dad's FB password so I logged in. She's been sending him private messages with youtube links on how to create an Amazon account; how to buy this gift card and that gift card.

I changed his privacy setting's on FB so no more strangers can reach out to him. I'm heading to the police station shortly to ask them what I can do. I tried to find out how to report her to FB without much success. I have to chat with Dad again... but what else can I do about this woman?? I'm thinking maybe I should log into this account again; delete & block this woman; e-mail her that I am aware of her; spread her profile all over Facebook so none of his friends fall for this.

Some advice would be nice. Anyone else dealt with this kind of situtation?

 

[BadPinkTink]

Take screen shots of everything, then delete and block her. Contact your local law enforcement, most now have a digital / online department who deal with scammers and online stalkers.

There are also a few things to make your dads (and your) FB more safe.

I would not contact her through, just make your dads FB invisible to her

You can remove your dad's FB account from showing up in Google searches
You can hide you dads friends list
You can also limit who can send private messages

 

[starry_solo]

Don’t email her.

delete and block her from your friends list and send messages to his friends whom you think may be targeted for scamming.

the person will return under a different name so make sure to also delete all her messages in messenger so your dad won’t try to find her.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

See if she has any mutual friends with your dad and warn those people. Then delete from friends, block her, and delete all messages.

Then have a long discussion with your dad about sending money to people on the internet.

It's unlikely "she" is even in the location mentioned so I wouldn't waste the police's time.

 

[Disney Addicted]

Take screen shots of everything, then delete and block her. Contact your local law enforcement, most now have a digital / online department who deal with scammers and online stalkers.

There are also a few things to make your dads (and your) FB more safe.

I would not contact her through, just make your dads FB invisible to her

You can remove your dad's FB account from showing up in Google searches
You can hide you dads friends list
You can also limit who can send private messages

Thank you. I went through my Dad's privacy settings. I changed activity to only "friends" can see future posts; only "friends of friends" can send friend requests; only "friends" can see friends list; same for looking up e-mail address and phone number - just friends.

When you say remove his FB account from showing up in Google searches, is that the option "Do you want search engines outside of FB to link to your profile"? It's already set to NO.

Don’t email her.

delete and block her from your friends list and send messages to his friends whom you think may be targeted for scamming.

the person will return under a different name so make sure to also delete all her messages in messenger so your dad won’t try to find her.

Thank you. How do I delete their conversation in FB? If I do it through FB, will it automatically delete the conversation from his Messenger APP on his phone, or do I need to access the phone to delete it as well?

See if she has any mutual friends with your dad and warn those people. Then delete from friends, block her, and delete all messages.

Then have a long discussion with your dad about sending money to people on the internet.

It's unlikely "she" is even in the location mentioned so I wouldn't waste the police's time.

Yes, I doubt that. I doubt she's really a she either... I told him that before. Yes, we will have to have another conversation about this!

 

[BadPinkTink]

Thank you. I went through my Dad's privacy settings. I changed activity to only "friends" can see future posts; only "friends of friends" can send friend requests; only "friends" can see friends list; same for looking up e-mail address and phone number - just friends.

When you say remove his FB account from showing up in Google searches, is that the option "Do you want search engines outside of FB to link to your profile"? It's already set to NO.

well done, you got it sorted. Yes thats the one, as long as its set to NO, then when people Google his name, his Facebook wont be in the search results.

The only other thing to do would be to check the photo settings, I have mine set to friends only, that way none of them are public.

If he is using his photo as his profile photo, I would change it to something , anything else. A cute but still personal one would be a photo of a pet. I would delete his photo from the profile album as well, as profile photos are always public, even when you set all photos to friends only.

 

[cometdad2010]

Thankfully, it was just a small scam -- glad your brother raised the red flags when he did!

My grandparents (in their early 90s) fell victim to a scam several years ago. They don't use computers, but got a call on their landline phone that my cousin in New England was in a car accident and incarcerated. Supposedly the accident involved a police officer and there was a gag order for the case so this was her one phone call. She needed them to wire $3,000 for bail through Walmart. Without hesitation, my grandparents sent this money (and future amounts, totaling over $7,000) and it was all a scam.

As a family, we've instituted several checks and balances to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. My aunt and uncle were upset that they weren't even called before this money was sent to (supposedly) their daughter. She was home with them at the time, and if that call was made, the whole situation would have been avoided. We're also trying to convince them to allow someone else to review their bank statements monthly to make sure anything suspicious is caught quickly.

These scams seem to be more and more convincing. Make sure, as you discuss this with your dad, that you're as empathetic as possible. Some members of our family were incredulous and crass in their discussions -- that didn't help anyone.

 

[starry_solo]

Thank you. How do I delete their conversation in FB? If I do it through FB, will it automatically delete the conversation from his Messenger APP on his phone, or do I need to access the phone to delete it as well?

You need to be logged into Facebook and then the messenger section. It should automatically delete it from the messenger app, but if not, ask your father for his phone too.