Help needed - my father in Law won't accept it's a scam

Hello,

I'll try to keep this brief - please ask ANY questions that may help understand the situation and give me some better advice/options;

- My father in law is being romance scammed (80yrs old)
- About 200k deep from what I can see /he's up to the point of taking out loans / now talking about remortgaging
- importantly, they know his address. I can see around 4 times where the scammer has sent an 'agent' to meet my FIL directly, at his home, to take cash payments
- All his known banks have blocked him, police have spoken to him times
- HE WILL NOT BELIEVE IT IS A SCAMMER
- We knew nothing about this, his phone broke so I got ihm a new phone and had a snoop when transferring his old phone to his new phone
- I've sent him loads of evidence to prove this is fake. I've found the pictures of the 'lady' online, sent these to him, sent him links to the instagram/twitter/onlyfans etc. But he still is believing the scammer

Next steps;
- we've taken his phone
- my options are;
- Continue speaking to the scammer as my FIL. I want to tell the scammer not to trust any numbers pretending to be me. It's an interpol/police sting and they are trying to get the scammer to send more agents so they can be arrested. My thinking behind this is my FIL may have written down the scammers tel number and will simply get another phone to start contacting them again
- Or, I could just cut all ties with the scammer and never comms with them again.

We're also looking at trying to get a section 42 (UK Law) applied against my FIL. He is an habitual liar however I'm now wondering if he's not lying but infact showing signs of Alzheimers. A section 42 would mean my wife (his daughter) could take control on finances and prevent him from selling his property).

He's not going to stop, he's under the spell. So I need to try and work a plan to prevent this.

There's more experience in this forum than anywhere else. Am I putting my FIL at risk if I try to scam the scammers? They know his address. THe police have been informed. But this is all happening now, as we speak so I'm in a very reactive space. The police are escalating what they are doing and are intending to visit him again.

Any more questions and any advice appreciated.

THanks

[AlanJones]

Hi AAUK, welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry for the situation that you, your wife and FIL are in.

Am I putting my FIL at risk if I try to scam the scammers? They know his address

Definitely don't do this as you will potentially be putting not only your FIL at risk from them taking revenge on him, but possibly yourself, your wife and other members of your family. You never know what information he has given them about friends and family.

Clearly, he is so far invested now that he is clearly not going to believe anyone who tells him it is a scam. So, realistically, the only way you are going to stop him is by removing his ability to send money to or be contacted by the scammers (it is concerning that they seem to have people actually visiting him as that is going to mean that just removing his access to phone/email still leaves them a way to contact him).

Unfortunately, when a victim is so far invested in a scam and that hope that he will get his money, the only real way of stopping this is the legal route of trying to take control of his finances that you already mentioned.