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  • I very rarely post here but this topic really rung some bells. Basically don’t delete Facebook etc but use it to your advantage if needed.
    I gave up on FB years ago, preferring meeting people / phone calls / emails as they are more personal. I was considering deleting it but never got around to doing so. Just over a year ago my mother had to move into a nursing home due to dementia (my sister moved far away and I work full time, father died years ago so nobody to look after her full time like she needs). I really trusted my sister and her husband, they had the time to look after my mother’s money (they are both retired) and I have never had a problem with them before so this was alco helpful. Eventually it turned out that we needed to sell my mother’s house to pay for the nursing home fees, my sister accepted an offer for the house without discussing with me. I got suspicious and asked my sister to have access to my mother’s bank account (we both have power of attorney but I never applied for access to the bank account as I trusted my sister) but she told me that I didn’t need this, eventually she gave in. I discovered that there was a lot of money missing from my mother’s bank accounts dating back from when my father died (blank cheques cashed, random ATM withdrawals for the maximum amount possible and massive bank transfers to random accounts that I later discovered were my sister’s).
    Whilst this was all going on I had a lot of family ignoring me – I am part of a large family spread around many countries and they like to use Facebook to communicate. I was paranoid as this was unusual.
    I asked my sister via phone call, email and text for the stolen money to be returned, I never received a reply.
    My sister is an active poster on Facebook, so when I saw that she posted a message to all her friends that we should support dementia charities I was mad. I replied to the group say that she is a thief and she has stolen money from someone suffering from dementia. Some of the money has been returned, except for the blank cheques and ATM withdrawals. I have spoken to a solicitor but it will cost a lot to recover the other missing money and I might not be successful so have not pursued this.
    People in the group that have been ignoring me have now been calling me to apologise and we have now re-connected!
    Anyway, TLDR, I am glad that I didn’t delete Facebook but only use it whenever necessary.

  • That’s quite a story. Must’ve been heart wrenching going through it. Have you got someone to lean on? Few good threads on here to post in for support.

    Also, top marks for using FB to solve the mystery and out the thief. Some people huh

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