<prompt> Human: original post: here I met with my mother yesterday.The scammers got her pretty good. Several posters were very accurate in detailing what happened even before I had the details. She was told she won the lottery, needed x amount of money to pay taxes, insurance, etc...etc...She cleared out her entire retirement. Its gone. And the HELOC on the house, also cashed and gone. Although I did my best to explain to her that the way she sent the money- in cash, through the mail- is untraceable, she is mostly convinced that since the state police reported it to the FBI, that the government will be able to get her money back. I assessed her current financial situation and while its not good, its manageable. She still has enough money to pay her current expenses.I got her scheduled for a Drs appt and will be attending the appointment with her, and providing them with this information beforehand because I do want her screened for dementia and for depression. But honestly, I dont think she has dementia, or even early-onset issues. I think she was just lonely and gullible and maybe greedy and was a perfect victim. its incredibly sad.I am ordering her a whitelist device to prevent more phone calls. Im not taking charge of the mail just yet. I am following the advice of the posters who suggested I not add my names to her accounts, but I will be arranging POA so I have access to that information. I do have a few questions that I know you can answer:My mom has a car loan for approx 200mo for about the next 4 years. Should I be encouraging her to take money from what limited saving she still has to pay off this debt NOW, or keep that money as liquid resources in case of other emergencies? Other than the HELOC and some minimal credit card debt of less than 1k, this is the only money she owes anyone. Could anyone direct me to layman-friendly tax information? My mother was able to withdraw her retirement without early penalties, but Im not well-informed on what taxes she may owe on that money anyway. I have encouraged her to discuss the scam with her tax prep person, because one poster suggested she may not have to pay taxes on that money if we can prove that it was stolen, so to speak. Im paraphrasing, sorry. Last question- need some feedback. My mother is at an age where she could retire and have about the same amount of income on social security as she does working. I dont want her to retire until the moment she sells the house and is ready to move- to me it makes sense for her to keep working for as long as possible while she is hopefully healthy and able to do so. If anyone has helped their parents make this decision, Id appreciate some advice on how to address this further. I did put a fraud alert on her credit. She insists that the scammers never asked her for her DL, SSN, or any bankingcredit information. It turns out my mother was the one who contacted the police. Apparently after she had already mailed them nearly 300k and they still wanted more money, she felt as though something was not kosher with the situation. insert crazy laughter here. Oh and Id like to point out that my mother went to a different bank than her normal one for the HELOC, so the new bank wouldnt have suspected anything unusual was happening. According to my mother, the scammers told her to use a different bank because as a new customer you will get a better interest rate. How nice that they were looking out for her! UGHGuys I am just so sad about all of this. The money is gone and she doesnt quite realize that yet. The plans we were tenatively making for her to sell her home and buy another outright are shot now that theres a HELOC to pay off. So 100k off of whatever she might get for her current home goes toward that loan, and shes got whatever is left to live on. I dont think shell get enough to buy a house in my area outright at least not a decent house!! so now we are looking at renting, downsizing- things she is not mentally prepared to do. Its going to be awful. It already is awful. I want to thank everyone again for your advice and help that youve already offered. I also want to tell everyone that when they are home over the holidays to talk with all their relatives about this story and make them aware of these scams, and emphasize how important questioning these types of windfalls can be in protecting yourself. If my mother had told me she thought she won a prize but needed to send in to claim it, I could have put the brakes on this hundreds of thousands of dollars ago. Assistant: What is your mothers assessment of the situation? You say she doesnt really understand the money is gone; does she realize how much her life is going to change due to this?Perhaps you can have a fundraiser of some kind for her, or a crowdfunding campaign where you and your mother can set out to raise awareness and stop these types of scams.Human: She really doesnt seem to think the money is gone. Somehow the government is going to get it back. This is the same almost-magical thinking that caused her to fall for the scam, I think. Additionally, as of right now, the bills she has are managed with her monthly income, including the current HELOC repayment. So in her mind, everythings okay. What shes not able to process right now is the realization that the 6-to-12 month prognosis is not great. She wants to retire, we agree she should move. But the retirement money that could have bought a new house is gone, and the money that will come from the old house is half spent, and who knows when the house will actually sell.  <response>: In the months to come, please keep a good eye on your mothers behavior. When she does come to terms with her situation, her reaction could be quite unpredictable. I hate to even say it, but suicide is not an uncommon response to a devastating financial loss. If you can arrange a safety system for her friends, neighbors, church, family, c., hopefully shell navigate the coming change in circumstances as well as one could hope. 