Help Retired Grandma Save Her Home - Scammed of Life Savings

Hi. My name is Kenny Chen and I am fundraising for my 92-year-old grandmother (Tsai Hua Li) who was involved in an online investment scam that cost her her life savings and she may be in danger of losing her home in Clarksville, TN.

On September 28th, we found out that my grandma (in attempt to leave a better inheritance for her 6 children and 8 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild) had been investing in cryptocurrency after she was desperate to try to withdraw her investments from the crypto-exchange platform that warned her that she needed to pay taxes before withdrawing; otherwise her funds would be confiscated. When we found out, we quickly took her phone and laptop, blocked her supposed "friend" and reported this to the FBI, FTC, secret service and banks to help with any recovery.

The shock of the scam sent my grandma into depression and we took her to the hospital where she stayed for two weeks. Since then my mom has moved in with my grandma as my mom is retired and can be there 24/7 to care for and look after her.

In summary, my grandma had invested her life savings, roughly $600,000, but now that is all gone. On November 7th, we received unpleasant, but unsurprising, news from the FBI that there was no way of recovering the funds as it is outside their jurisdiction.

Her kids and adult grandkids (myself included) are able to pool together to help her for a few months, but we are not in a position to help save her home. Below is a breakdown of the expenses related to the scam (details of event are below under "COMPLETE STORY"):

Contributions will go toward saving her home and any amount will be greatly appreciated. If you are unable to contribute at this time, please share this page. If you prefer to make an offline donation (and avoid the GoFundMe transaction fee of 2.9%) my Venmo is @Kenny-Chen-57737. You can reach out to me if you want to pay via PayPal. Please put "Personal Gift - Gofundme Donation for Scammed Victim" in your notes and make sure it is "Personal".

As my aunts and uncles are trying to attend to my grandma's well-being, I will be managing the money and paying off the loans and hospital bill and preparing to pay her taxes next year for her as we do not know if any of her accounts or information have been compromised.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

COMPLETE STORY

As mentioned above, I'd like to share the complete story to provide readers the opportunity to spot elderly scams in their own life and prevent this from happening to yourself and your parents.

My grandma lives in the condo that she and her husband (passed away 10 years ago) purchased about 20 years ago. After my grandpa's passing, two of her daughters (my aunts) moved in with her to take care of her, but they both still work to make a living and pay bills, so during the weekday my grandma is by herself.

On June 6th, someone claiming to be the daughter of an old friend of my grandma, who passed away around the same time as my grandpa, reached out to my grandma over the phone and wanted to connect with my grandma. She knew some details about my grandma and her old friend and the conversations via phone, video call, and text seemed normal and friendly and warm to the point where the "friend" asked if she could call my grandma "mom". My aunts were aware of these conversations, but no money or investment were ever discussed in the first two months.

Then around middle of August, this "friend" convinced my grandma that now was a good time to invest in cryptocurrency to increase her savings so that she could leave a better inheritance for her kids and grandkids. She also convinced her to keep this a secret so as to surprise them. In the month and a half of investment, this "friend" guided my grandma on how to transfer her savings and place it in the crypto exchange platform (www.btcc-do.com - this website has since been shut down, but an image is shown below). She showed my grandma how to invest in "short-term" investments and even initially showed her how to withdraw from the platform to prove that the money can be easily withdrawn and that it is safe and authentic.

After several small investments and ability to withdraw back into her account, my grandma seemed to have confidence in the system and was willing to invest more. Her "friend" even advised her to take a personal loan ($80,000) from SoFi to make even bigger gains.

The total investment was $680,000 ($600,000 from savings and $80,000 from loan). When my grandma told her she had nothing left to invest and can no longer take a loan, her "friend" suggested that she withdraw the funds, but this is when the message warned her about the taxes owed prior to withdrawal. In a panic, she asked her "friend" if she could borrow some money to pay the taxes, but her "friend" said she could not as she was still investing on the platform and didn't want to withdraw. This is when the "friend's" text took a more selfish and rude tone. Desperate as there was a timeline on when the taxes were due (one week after her initial withdrawal request), she asked her daughters how to resolve this and that's when they realized what had happened.

We reported the transactions and scam to the FBI, FTC, and secret service and the banks to support us. The banks informed us that there was nothing they could do. The FBI called us a week after we reported and told us that they will see if they can recover the funds if it is still in the United States as the FBI have no jurisdiction outside of the United States. A few weeks later (November 7th) was when the FBI finally confirmed that they could not recover any of the funds. And that is when we decided to turn to the community and public for support.

I have also included links to the Department of Justice providing a summary of Elder Fraud and how to prevent it as well as a link to how to report scams to the FBI. There are many ways and stories on how elders are scammed and many of them cannot recover their savings and many of them are not reported. I hope this story gives you a glimpse into how scammers can enter your life and to be cautious of anyone.

https://www.ic3.gov/Outreach/Brochures/Elder_Fraud_Tri-fold.pdf

https://www.ic3.gov/