EVERY day, we read about scams and fraudsters cheating and swindling people out of their hard-earned savings. Often, these scammers and fraudsters are unknown to the victims.
Victims often receive random calls from scammers posing as police officers or court officials. Using fear and intimidation, the scammers pressure them into transferring money into unknown accounts.
Out of fear and confusion, victims make hasty decisions, only to lose their hard-earned savings. Meanwhile, the scammers disappear without a trace.
However, there is a different type of scam that has been going on for years but has never been reported. Fraudsters of this type of scam are known to the victims as they involve family members.
Grown children are known to have cheated or swindled their parents of their property or savings. These cases go unreported and the fraudsters get away scot-free. Two such cases came to light recently. It was reported that two single parents were betrayed by their children.
Dubbed as the worst nightmare for parents when children, who are supposed to protect them, end up cheating them. This is akin to the Malay proverb “harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi”, meaning the one whom you trust betrays you.
TThe first case involved a 70-year-old woman whose son sold the house she was living in after her husband died.
He deceived her into signing the sale documents, claiming they were related to her late husband’s pension. Trusting him, she signed the papers and lost her house.
When she had nowhere to go, her son refused to take her in. She now stays with her sister and does odd jobs to survive.
The other case involved a 75-year-old single father whose daughter, entrusted with managing his finances, drained his savings. He is now financially destitute.
These family fraudsters exploit the trust of illiterate elderly parents, financially abusing them. Many victims suffer in silence out of shame or a desire to protect their children. Some elderly victims are left heartbroken, with some experiencing mental decline or even succumbing to premature death.
It is tragic that certain children can be so heartless – betraying the trust, love and faith of their ageing parents by cheating them out of their property and savings. These family fraudsters are, in many ways, worse than strangers who scam.
Most elderly parents will not file a police report or alert the authorities against their children, allowing the perpetrators to escape accountability.
But what these children fail to realise is that actions have consequences – what goes around, comes around.
Samuel Yesuiah
Seremban