My uncle, who is in his 60s around two years ago had about $50K to his name from an inheritance, but has given a majority of it to scammers from the Philippines. For additional background, I'm in my 20s, and my parents are in their 60s and are upper-middle class. The uncle is my mother's brother. He has had a lot of mental illnesses since childhood, but has never been diagnosed, and works as (ironically) a behavioral therapist. He hasn't been financially or mentally stable enough to live in an actual apartment or house, he lives in long-term hotels and has for almost a decade now.

He doesn't really understand computers, so I've set up and manage passwords for all of his email and social networking accounts, and recently came across a yearlong (or more) history of him sending money to a scammer in the Philippines that has now totaled in the tens of thousands, rapidly depleting his net worth. He isn't legally insane, so there is no chance we can acquire financial power of attorney, and such a process would likely be quite difficult. My parents and I worry greatly that he will turn to us when he runs out of money and neither want to abandon him nor ruin our lives taking care of him.

We've tried speaking to him about it, and he denies it... but I have access to his email account and my parents home is his permanent mailing address (as you can't send bank statements to a hotel), so they see that most of his money is being sent as Western Union transfers.
Do people have any general advice? Thanks so much!

(X-posted with /r/family before I realized it was a less popular sub)
user
Uncle rapidly depleting retirement fund to
assistant
My uncle, who is in his 60s around two years ago had about $50K to his name from an inheritance, but has given a majority of it to scammers from the Philippines. For additional background, I'm in my 20s, and my parents are in their 60s and are upper-middle class. The uncle is my mother's brother. He has had a lot of mental illnesses since childhood, but has never been diagnosed, and works as (ironically) a behavioral therapist. He hasn't been financially or mentally stable enough to live in an actual apartment or house, he lives in long-term hotels and has for almost a decade now.

He doesn't really understand computers, so I've set up and manage passwords for all of his email and social networking accounts, and recently came across a yearlong (or more) history of him sending money to a scammer in the Philippines that has now totaled in the tens of thousands, rapidly depleting his net worth. He isn't legally insane, so there is no chance we can acquire financial power of attorney, and such a process would likely be quite difficult. My parents and I worry greatly that he will turn to us when he runs out of money and neither want to abandon him nor ruin our lives taking care of him.

We've tried speaking to him about it, and he denies it... but I have access to his email account and my parents home is his permanent mailing address (as you can't send bank statements to a hotel), so they see that most of his money is being sent as Western Union transfers.
Do people have any general advice? Thanks so much!

(X-posted with /r/family before I realized it was a less popular sub)
user
Uncle is sending money to scammers
assistant