<prompt> Human: My mom and I are dealing with a lot of financial trouble. My dad has been using my moms name and personal information to day trade stocks on Scottrade. This past week, he lost 4000 and used my moms biannual bonus from work and her paycheck to pay off the money he lost. My mom has two bank accounts, one personal and one joint with my dad. She makes about 2800 a month after taxes, health care, and 401k deductions. Currently, 500 of her paycheck goes to her personal account, everything else goes to the joint account. He lost 8000 in February this year, and has lost in the tens of thousands in the past 5 years. My mom had to sell some of her stock options that her company gave her to pay off what he owed in February. We think he borrows money from Scottrade to trade trades with money he doesnt have. Its always him taking my moms money. Hes been unemployed for 17 years. How do we stop this? My parents are 5 years away from retirement. Should we call Scottrade and tell them that its identity theft and my mom never opened the account and it was my dad stealing her identity? How do we prevent him from opening more trading accounts under her name and with her information? We also are worried about him getting put in jail for identity theft. I think that would destroy the family and were trying to minimize the damage but its already gotten so out of hand I dont even know what to do. Thank you for your help in advance. Assistant: Why hasnt your mother divorced him?Why does he still have access to money?Human: A few reasons- theyre both Chinese immigrants. Culturally, its a dishonor to get divorced. Shes worried it would have bad effects for me and my brother Ive graduated college already and moved out, but my brother still lives at home and is in 12th grade. Moreso, she doesnt know how to go about it, how much legal fees for the divorce would be, and shes worried shed have to give half of her money to my dad if they get divorced and doesnt know how to go about fighting this. Her English is also not very good. He has been verbally and emotionally abusive since many years ago. He used to be in sole control of the money. Now shes been slowly taking control back, like changing passwords and creating her own account. He gets very angry and stops talking to her and shouts when she takes control of money away from him. Its been a slow process because shes afraid of him.  <response>: This is America. More dishonor in staying married to a man who will continue to cause your family to live in financial hardship.Fuck that, I would suggest that u convince ur mom to divorce and cut ties. I have no idea how ur father is losing that much day trading, he must be delusional.Edit: short term I would recommend that your mother open a new checking account that she can direct deposit her paycheck into that is NOT A JOINT ACCOUNT. She should have access to her whole paycheck without your father accessing it. 