SENIOR SCAMMED OUT OF $100K BY INTERNET BF NEEDS CHP 7 RELIEF;  CLIENT FILED FOR CHAPTER 7 WITHOUT LAWYER IN 2008 DID NOT GET DISCHARGE

Client is 65 and a widow. Wanting some male attention, I guess, she posted her picture on the Internet. She looks much younger in the posted picture. She showed me the picture. She looked like she was 48. But she said that the picture was taken only last year. If her purpose was to get some male attention to her picture, she certainly got it. Ah, the wonders of the Internet where romance can bloom without people actually physically meeting each other. I asked her if she ever met the guy. She said she could not believe how stupid she was. I asked her if the guy was American. She said she doesn’t even know if the picture he sent was really he. 

It started with him asking her for money for legal expenses, then money for this, and money for that. So, I asked her how long has it been going on? It started about 9 months ago. Then I asked her how much she had given him. She said she had given him $100K in 9 months. I said, “Are you serious, you must be kidding!” She said she was not kidding. She admitted that her children told her not to do it, as did her friends and other relatives. So I said, “so, why did you do it? How can you give a guy that you have never met, $100K?” And her explanation was “I was crazy, I was insane…” It really looks like she went nuts for a while there. Then I asked her where she got the $100K.  She said I borrowed from credit cards, banks and relatives for a grand total of $100K. 

So now she wants to have the guy arrested. Even if she files a police report, it’s next to impossible to find who the guy really is, much less arrest him. This guy could be anyone in the world who he lives in Timbuktu but pretends that he is a good-looking American guy. I asked her how come she never met the guy in person. She said that he was working, as a seaman so he would be in port for a short time, then would be out at sea for a long time. I asked her for a picture of the guy. She showed it to me. I said, “I think I’ve seen that guy somewhere before. Wait, that’s the most interesting guy in the world, the guy who is the spokesman for some European whiskey brand. Well, obviously, that’s not his real picture. 

The real guy could be somewhere in Nigeria laughing his way all the way to bank. I asked her if she’s ever heard of the Nigerian scams where you get a call telling you that he is some kind of royalty from Nigeria whose assets have been frozen by the bank. If you wire him $1K, he will be able to unfreeze his bank accounts and send you $1.0 M immediately.

It’s so unfortunate that senior women fall for the oldest trick in the gigolo book. I had another client who was 50 but she actually had a real boyfriend who asked her to bring him around the world. The guy treated her as a ‘sugar mommy’. You know how that works, right?  The woman being older, the man is younger. He professes that he loves her but that love has to be “sugared” with cash and exotic trips around the world. Well, the easiest way to sugar this love is to use credit cards. My other client maxed out her credit cards at $180K for so many trips around the world. Cruises galore! Lifestyles of the rich and famous for as long as there are credit cards to use.  But as soon as the money runs out, good-bye my one and only love…it’s time to look for another sugar mommy with unused credit cards. 

Fortunately, client victim can discharge her $100K debts with a Chapter 7 petition to have a fresh start. By next year, her credit score will start going up. If she handles the new credit cards in a timely manner, she can be up and running around with another boyfriend all over the world with her new credit cards. But this time around, I hope she can at least meet Mr. Romeo in person and spend a romantic year with a real guy while her new credit cards are not maxed out. 

Next client is 56. She says she filed for Chapter 7 in 2008 but never got a discharge. I asked her how she knew that no discharge was given to her. She showed me a notice that her case was closed without discharge.  Since then, she obtained new credit cards of $30K. She was just disabled and can’t pay the cards anymore. I asked her who her lawyer was. She said she had no lawyer and filed it herself. She said now she wants to re-file with a lawyer so she can get a discharge. Can she file another Chapter 7 now? Yes, because it’s at least 8 years from the first filing date even if she did not get a discharge. 

“THE LORD LIVES! BLESSED BE MY ROCK! LET GOD BE EXALTED, THE ROCK OF MY SALVATION!” 2 Samuel 22:47

Lawrence B. Yang is a graduate of Georgetown University with a Master’s Degree in Law and specializes in Bankruptcy, Business, Real Estate and Civil Litigation.  He speaks English, Mandarin and Fujian and has successfully represented thousands of clients in California, including companies overseas.  Please call Angie, Barbara or Jess at (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S. Fremont Ave., MAILSTOP 58 BUILDING A-1 SUITE 1125, Alhambra, CA OR at 20274 Carrey Road, Walnut, CA 91789.

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