My recently widowed father (72) is planning a trip across the country to meet a woman who he claims called him by accident and with whom he has since built a romantic (remote) relationship. Here’s what he’s shared with me:
- He received a “wrong number” call from a woman that led to a number of other conversations online and on the phone that started to take on a romantic tone.
- He believes she is real because he has checked her out online, including validating that she is indeed the CEO of her company, is 40 years old, and is originally from Taiwan. Haven’t seen this myself.
- She says she runs this company with her brother in Canada and her father back in Taiwan. The details of the company were not clear to me.
- They have exchanged photos but not video because her webcam is not working.
- He is planning a trip to Los Angeles (from the East Coast of US) in a few months to meet her in person. She said her driver will pick him up at the airport.
- No money has been asked for or sent, according to him.
This is obviously a scam, right? But, without there being an ask for money I can’t figure out the angle and haven’t been able to convince him to disengage.
It is either going to be an ask for money to help her overseas family or a “can’t lose” investment in her company. I’m guessing she’ll back out of the travel plans last minute so they never meet OR he’s going go there and have his organs harvested.
Does anyone recognize this scam? What should we expect next? Has anyone else successfully talked their elderly loved ones out of one of these?
Lots of good info already, so I’ll just leave a look to a good podcast episode on pig butchering scams.
If she’s CEO of a company, she can afford a fifty quid webcam to plug into her PC.
Never mind all the other red flags.
May I be as delusional in my 70s to believe I can still pull a 40 year old for reasons that have nothing to do with money
It’s a pig butchering scam. She won’t ever ask for money, she will just start drip-feeding “investment advice” that will typically direct him to an app in the Google Play Store (or Apple App Store) that is a full on fraud. Yes, they have complete scam/fraud apps in the legitimate app stores that look like legitimate investment apps (but sure Google, you have to block side-loading to keep your customer’s safe - fucking frauds all the way down…).
Your dad might already be on the hook for thousands thinking he is investing and making a huge return. The victim doesn’t know they are in deep until they try to pull the money out and find out it doesn’t actually exist. None of it. Not their “profit”. Not their original “investments”. He doesn’t think it’s a scam because he didn’t send her any money. He just thinks his new friend (or girlfriend) is giving him tips and he is investing with a “trusted” app from a “trusted” source - after all it is on the app store.
Get your dad watching Kitboga. Show him the Last Week Tonight segment on pig butchering scams (it’s on youtube). I don’t know what else to do, I don’t know if there are any legal avenues that can help or not, unfortunately, until he knows he is being scammed. If the idea that a 40 year old CEO absolute smoke-show woman wants to DATE a 72 year old widower retiree isn’t sending enough red flags to make him keep his walls up, it’s going to be a hard battle to convince him.
That “company” is the key part of the scam here. Your father will be asked to invest money in it for various reasons. Whether they’ll go for the “it’s a great deal” or “help me Obi Wan” angle is dependent on the mark.
It’s easier to scam someone again rather than convince them they’re being scammed.
Hold on, I think you may be on to a solution here… We just have to figure out a way to ‘scam’ these people in a way that cancels out the original scam and prevents / does no further harm.
Just throwing this out there. Maybe a good technique would be for OP to show his dad that he also gets these messages “whoops wrong number! By the way I’m an attractive foreign woman 20% younger than you, want to chat?”
I get these at least 3-4 of these a week. Surely seeing how common this is would make it clear, right?
Have him reach out to her through the publicly posted channels, not through the contact info “she” has given him. The real CEO lady will tell him that the scammer he’s talking to is just impersonating her.
That’s a good solution, assuming she is a real person being impersonated and not entirely fabricated.
Your Dad’s a moron and probably a “whale” in scammer databases.
It is hard to defend his behavior, certainly. But I think I’m coming to grips with the toll aging takes on people. The man who raised me was no idiot. But this frail, lonely, isolated person is not who he used to be.
There’s a reason these scams target who they target.
Loneliness is difficult to deal with, especially if you used to be married and are at an age where new people don’t come easy any more.
One of the “death bed confessions” of my granddad was that he regretted never re-marrying.
No one has a broken webcam in 2026. Especially if ahes supposedly a company CEO, like that is a solved-today problem if it was ever true.
Also unless your dad is also loaded, there’s not a ton of incentive for a successful woman in her early forties to start a romance with someone nearly twice her age, I mean that may sound awful but I’m a woman and that’s just pragmatic. A long distance gamble on a set of old balls? If she’s just in to older men, I’m sure there are plenty in a 10 minute vicinity, she doesn’t need to fw men on the other side of the country.
Others mentioned it, but this is a clear pig butcher attempt. I get them through text about twice a year. As soon as I politely ask them if they’re trying to perform a pig butcher or ir they know what one is, they usually shut up.
Your father will lose everything if you can’t convince him of this.
This is definitely a scam, though I’m also confused by your dad traveling, usually that’s other way around (and that’s where “complications” happen where money is “needed”).
Try to tell your dad what you expect coming - there will be complications and she will ask for money. Likely only a little at first, but the number will be rising.
Also, since they are impersonating (or acting like) a public figure, try searchig for the name online. Your dad is likely not the first (or last) that fell for this particular scam. Other people might be sharing stories with this person. There might be messages shared that people exchanged with the scammer - these will likely match those sent to your dad (the scammers usually have multiple people going at the same time). Use that - if your dad reads on the internet the exact message he got from his love interest, that hopefuly will ring some alarm bells. Though in the age of AI this might not be the case anymore, it’s worth a shot.
Talk with your dad, ask how things are going and try to be vigilant for money being asked for. Try to poke holes in the stories but be gentle so your dad doesn’t shut you out - he will likely not be that willing to listen. One way or another he will get hurt - you can just minimize the financial damage - or limit it to emotional only.
Good luck.
Organs or rapture ?
No organs will be harvested: he’s too old for that. But it doesn’t mean he won’t be butchered: he will be butchered like a pig
The meeting will be called off last minute and it will either be a shady investment or ill father in South Asia.
It is utterly important for you to stay with him and plan this through, as it seems like he already trusts the scammer more than you. You are losing him.
“her driver” will be a white van
Being the CEO of a company and not having a working webcam seems like a dead straight no-brainer giveaway that this is a scam. I mean, you know… a CEO who can’t do video Zoom meetings? Come on.
So he’s flying to LA to be taken who knows where alone in a car with her driver? Dude NO, absolutely NOT. Please talk your dad out of this, srsly.
Just in case he needs some more red flags
