rSlash - r/Scams My Dad Lost $200,000+ to Scammers

Episode Date: January 18, 2026

0:00 Intro 0:08 Kevin Costner 1:51 100k 3:42 Kokomo 7:00 Real estate 8:49 Fake pregnancy 12:32 Pig scam 14:17 Crypto 15:49 Firearms Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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buying process. Buy your next car today with car gurus at car gurus.ca. Go to car gurus.ca. Go to car gurus.ca. To make sure your big deal is the best deal. That's C-A-R-G-R-U-S-S dot CA. Welcome to R-slash scams, where a grandmother is dating Kevin Costner. Our next Reddit post is from Window Poems. How do I convince my mom that she's not dating Kevin Costner? My mom, my mom, is a 72-year-old married woman with disabilities. For the last five months, she's been messaging Kevin Costner. At this point, there are like 70 different Kevin Costner profiles that are sending her messages on Facebook, and she thinks they're all him.

They asked her to switch to different apps to talk, so she downloaded Telegram and WhatsApp. He sends voice texts and makes phone calls. I see her texting on her phone constantly now, and I know it's with this. man. He apparently sent her a diamond necklace, which I found online and it's 75 bucks. He talked about buying her an engagement ring. I've read articles to her about this exact scam, and she believes me for a few hours. Then she gets right back to it. She doesn't send him money that I know of, but she did admit that he's been asking for gift cards. She let me and my sister block a bunch of accounts on two different occasions on her Facebook, but they always just multiply again. There are

hundreds of messages on there, and it's very difficult to find all the profiles and block them. It's especially difficult because they always know how to find her again. I'm aware that part of this is mental health related. It's extremely worrisome, and I just don't know what to do. At first, it was funny, and it quickly became extremely bleak and sad, and I'm concerned for her. Let's see, According to Google, Kevin Costner's net worth is around $200 million, and this guy is asking a grandma for gift cards. Our next Reddit post is from Spirited Remote. The past couple of days have been incredibly rough for me. I'm 27 years old, and my 63-year-old mom was involved in a scam. She did not know this was a scam. She told me she won $100,000 if she would give them $50,000. These communications, started on TikTok first and then moved to WhatsApp. The scammers claimed they were a previous

lottery winner. The scammers sent her checks and instructed her to cash $4,700 at a time at various bank branches. She cashed $23,000 total. She broke this into smaller sums, sending them to three addresses that the scammers told her to send them to. She put them inside of children's books and mailed them via USPS. The only reason I knew this is because she was, she's on my checking account. I noticed negative $23,000 in my bank last Thursday and panicked. I called my bank to figure out what was going on and they told me my mom had been jumping bank to bank cashing these checks. When I called her, she told me the story of what the scammers told her. All my money that I've been saving for years, which was $7,000, has been withdrawn in this process because of her.

The bank is now telling me that if my mom doesn't pay back the 15K that's owed, then I'll be responsible. I don't know what to do. All of my money is gone. I'm going to be held responsible if she doesn't pay up. And I know she can't afford this, and I definitely can't afford this. We contacted the police, the FBI, and have obviously talked to the bank. The bank told me that I'm no longer allowed to bank with them and won't help us at all, because my mom willingly cast. the checks. I'm so confused why they allowed her to cash these checks and why I'm even involved in the first place. Our next Reddit post is from the bearded Jew. My girlfriend is currently involved in what I strongly believe is a scam. She was originally contacted by a company called Kokomo Tours, who told her they were interested in buying her timeshare. Before that, though,

she had been in touch with another company that made a similar offer, which unfortunately turned out to be a scam, and she lost nearly $60,000. After she mentioned this to Kokomotors, they claimed they could help her sue the scammers. Now they're telling her that she's won a $124,000 payout, supposedly through a class action suit, and that the Department of Justice is involved. But here's the catch. They're saying the check is being held by customs for some reason, and she needs to pay a percentage fee to get it released. It all sounds extremely suspicious to me. Red flags everywhere, but she believes it's legit, and to make matters worse, she's already sent them another $20,000. She's emotionally and financially invested in this, and I'm struggling to convince her that it's a scam. Then, nine

months later, OP posted an update. Despite everything that was explained to her back then, my girlfriend is still sending these people money. I've sat down with her. I've sat down with her, multiple times and calmly explained how none of what they're telling her makes any sense. I've gone step by step explaining how legitimate lawsuits, settlements, customs, and government agencies actually work. Nothing changes. Recently, they sent her an email impersonating Department of Justice officials. I personally contacted both people named in the email. Neither replied, but I was able to confirm one of them doesn't even work at the DOJ anymore. When I showed this to my girlfriend, she didn't argue, she just stayed quiet. At this point, the financial damage is severe. She hasn't paid her car

payment in three months. She hasn't paid her mortgage in two months. She has personal loans she's not paying. She's thousands of dollars in credit card debt. She's borrowing money from family, neighbors, coworkers, and pretty much anyone she can ask. She owes money to most of the people in her life. She's drowning in debt and still believes this person. payout is coming. The only reason I haven't left is because, if I do, she will literally have nothing, not even enough money for groceries for herself and her child. That's the only thing keeping me here. But every time I found out she sent them more money, things get harder. It feels like I'm watching someone self-destruct in slow motion, and I'm powerless to stop it. What makes this

even more disturbing is that she told me the people from Kokomo Tours said they know that I'm posting about them on Reddit and that they watch this subreddit. That doesn't sound suspicious at all, right? You know, I think a thing that scammers do is once they find a gullible victim, they just make up five to ten different, you know, other agencies and companies and individuals and keep contacting them under different names because, hey, we got a sucker on the hook. Let's try every possible strategy we can and see which of these is going to make this sucker pay us even more money. Our next Reddit posted from Confident Ear. A couple is shopping for real estate in my town. They were referred when they had another property in another town fall through almost two years ago.

They believe they're multi-millionaires. They're looking at big houses on large acreage, commercial investment properties, etc. They're talking about buying houses for their kids, their parents, etc. The money will be coming any day now. The banks have issues. The international transfer requires time. There are fees to be paid and duties to cover. They have to set up additional accounts to transfer their vast wealth. They have all the excuses. After becoming suspicious, I asked for more details. They were not very forthcoming. They've been involved with an international currency investment for eight years, and returns have been astronomical. The agent who was helping them a few years ago said they expected the money years ago. They keep saying the money will show up next week.

Just since I've known them, it's been 18 months of next week. I'm 99% certain that they're being scammed for like $500 in international account fees, import duties, or whatever sounds convincing. They probably initially invested some money, who knows at this point, and the promises of massive returns have them still sending money in hopes of the big win. Fortunately, all this has cost me is some time showing them properties they'll never buy. So just another Tuesday. Down in the comments, we have this story from Cost Revolutionary. A woman killed her husband because of a scam like this. He was going to leave her when the money came in. She found out. Murdered him before he could leave. She was going to be a millionaire. Next week. Our next Reddit post is from Puzzlehead Bus. I feel

incredibly stupid for falling for this, but the manipulation was insane. I'm sharing this so nobody else falls for the same script. I started dating a girl a few months ago. It didn't start with big asks. She started asking for small amounts for her grandmother, groceries, etc. It created a dynamic where I was the provider. Where it escalated was she traveled to another city supposedly to collect a severance payment. I paid for her tickets. She sent photos of her arrival. She sent photos of her arrival. so I thought it was legit. Then the nightmare started. She claimed she was pregnant.

The ordeal lasted about five weeks. I told her I was applying for a bank loan to help, but the process took time. She claimed she got the abortion pills on credits. When the bank loan got delayed, the pressure started. She invented a backstory. The person who gave her the pills on credit was connected to a dangerous criminal. She said that because the payment was late, that dangerous man was threatening us. Coincidentally, right after I paid for the abortion and still had some loan money

left, she claimed she broke her ankle and needed urgent surgery. She said she didn't have insurance, so the procedure's cost was about $2,250. She knew I had the cash. She sent a generic photo of an injury. Pressured and exhausted from the previous threats, I transferred 1,000 USD directly to her personal bank account to save her leg. She never came back. She claimed that she was robbed and her phone screen was smashed. She had a friend to fix it on credit because she had no cash. Then the story went from drama to a horror movie.

She claimed that on this guy's phone, she accidentally saw a video of him torturing and dismembering someone. She told me that because she saw too much, the guy was threatening to kill us. She said she had given him my home address and her grandmother's address when she dropped off the phone. She demanded $250 immediately to keep us alive. The story was so extreme that I finally confided in a co-worker. He helped me investigate. We found her hidden Instagram account. She wasn't

injured in Colombia. She was posting stories traveling in Seoul and China. We contacted her mother who worked for the same company. The mother confirmed she was traveling. The same colleague revealed that this girl was known for this behavior. She, She had previously tried to pin a fake pregnancy and child on one of his friends. It was her modus operandi. I confronted her with the evidence and she denied everything. My co-worker also messaged her and she got aggressive, telling him to mind his own business.

She even tried to gaslight us by saying that she didn't understand why her mother said that, trying to discredit her own mom to keep the lie alive. Then I blocked her. A month later, I received a text from an unknown number saying, Your days are numbered. I don't know if she just blocked me or muted me. It doesn't matter anymore. The money's gone.

And I'm stuck paying monthly installments for a lie. I'm posting this to vent because I feel like an idiot. But hopefully, my story saves someone else's wallet. To answer the recurring questions, yeah, we met in person. We dated locally in my city before she traveled. We had an intimate physical relationship, which is why the pregnancy claim was plausible to me. This was not an online-only relationship.

Her mother even works for the same company as me. I was scammed by someone I physically knew, not a stranger on the internet. Her next credit post is from Elgib. I think my father has been involved in a pig-butchering scam for almost two years now. All he talks about is crypto, trying to break out of the system and free energy stuff. He wants to make a lot of money, but only if it involves a shortcut or some way to cheat the system. He's given multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars out of family savings, personal funds, and short-term loans, to people claiming to be in the process of obtaining a special credit card for him,

which only the richest people have, so he can spend all the billions he's made by trading crypto on one of those bogus arbitrage-enabling apps. You know the deal. There's always something else they've got to do, and they always need more money from him to make it happen. We as a family are living paycheck to paycheck now. We've sat down as a family to tell him these things are not real, and he's been scammed.

Initially, it seemed promising, but after a few weeks, he's back at it again. I think because we're younger, and because my mother is a woman, he doesn't respect our opinions enough to hear them. Yet he's become a shell of his former self after being confronted about how much money has disappeared. He's withdrawn from family activities, speaks more quietly, and just seems totally removed from the world.

I'm worried that if we tell him he's being stupid again, he'll simply do something irreversible to himself. I don't know how to solve this. My mom's getting tired. She's doing her absolute best to keep us afloat, but my dad doesn't work anymore, so it's just her. Honestly, O.P.'s dad is starting to sound less like a victim and more like some kind of addict. Our next Reddit post is from Sim. I had a customer coming today, and he had a check that he wanted to deposit. Super normal, no red flags. He asked about how long the hold would be. Still, no red flags.

Since we're in Canada and we celebrate Victoria Day, the banks are closed on Monday. So his five business day hold would take us until May 21st. I told him that, and he said that he needs at least $9,000 released right away. Now I'm even more curious, and I asked, He said he needs 10% to send to his crypto account so he can withdraw the $90,000 that his crypto account has generated. Skeptical, I asked what account, how he opened it, what website, the whole ordeal. To my surprise, he told me.

He clicked on a Facebook ad and deposited a couple hundred bucks a few months ago. And now it's generated 90,000 USD. But in order to get the 90K, he needs to deposit. at $9,000. Yeah, no, I told him he's being scammed, grabbed my phone and showed him the numerous crypto scams posted on Reddit. I said his biggest blessing is losing a couple of hundred bucks and not thousands. Turns out this investment advisor is based out of Brussels and yelled at my customer. Mind you, my customer is 75 years old and vulnerable. So he panicked and came to the bank to talk about it. Thank goodness he did. Save the man $9,000.

Our next Reddit post is from Suzuki Sandy. The scammers almost got me. I was contacted by HSBC Bank about a credit card in my name, purchasing $9,000 in firearm. I said this is obviously identity theft, and my bank replies that this constitutes terrorism, and my accounts and assets would be frozen, and I'd be placed on a Department of Homeland Security blacklist.

They said that I can speak with Fairfax. police to resolve this, so they transfer me over, and in five seconds, Officer Diaz picks up. Very suspicious, he has the same accent as the bank agent. He says he'll file the report to clear my name, but he has to do a background check for my protection. He contacts headquarters, and they tell him I have a Chase bank account being used to launder $2.3 million in cash. A Chinese national, who was arrested, confessed that I personally agreed to sell my data for $10,000 because I was desperate for cash. I'm laughing out loud, and the officer asks, is this funny to you? They hate being laughed at.

That was R-slash-scams, and if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new write-up podcast episodes every single day.