i was conned!!!!!

[mdmkay]

i was conned by this 28 y.o. male. He said he had throat cancer and asked if i would take care of him. He said he would loan me 15000 dollars which he said he wired into my bank account. I had been ill for 11 1/2 years and had been pretty isolated in my house and have a mental illness. I have multiple personality disorder and post traumatic stress. I had just seperated from my husband and had been under a great deal of stress. The idea of moving to a city and being surrounded by friends and a new family sounded heavenly so i believed him and fell into his plans readily. Well, to make a long story short he talk me and my gf into going with him and i wrote many many checks and with some arguments took out credit applications for dept store cards which of course were maxed out immediately. He got me kicked out of my apt because of course the rent check bounced, he got all my money, my car was signed over the night before i checked into a mental hospital for a conversion reaction, my reputation is ruined and i have lots and lots of bad checks written on a closed bank acct. I don't know what to do now. Of course everything he told us was lies. There wasn't an attorney taking care of the checks and paying the bills of course so now i'm in great legal trouble. The detective i went to to report this incident says that i can go after him for a forged check he ran through my acct. but basically i have to receive a vunerable adult status to really go after him for the rest and to have any chance of not losing my freedom over these checks etc. This is all very confusing because of course the social services and others think they totally have my number and i just went out and willy nilly wrote this checks knowing my acct was empty. If anyone has advice or can even tell me what a vunerable adult statute says i'd be very thankful.........Kay

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I am very sorry to hear about what happened but you really have to be smart about things. Giving people a constant stream of money should have set off warning signals from the beginning and it always should. I wouldn't take out credit for another person, except if that person was a spouse or close family member that I knew I could trust.

I am guessing that the "vulnerable adult" statute that was mentioned is something along the lines of one which states that a person cannot take advantage of another who clearly has some capacity of the mind lacking, e.g. someone with down's syndrome. If you appear normal, you may not be covered under such a statute. Did he know specifically about certain problems you have? Regardless, I don't see why you could not pursue this individual for a loan, at the very least. I think that is what the detective may be telling you, since it seems that you voluntarily gave this cretin the money and he just didn't pay you back for the loan. The detective would be familiar with such a statute and I think he's saying that this may be a reach.