My 72 year old step father thinks he's been talking to bruce springsteen all day on facebook.

Thanks. I did this and it seemed to help. when i first talked to him he was angry at me. But then I tried again, I started by telling him i love him, that I wasn't attacking his character in anyway. then i just tried to reason with him that bruce springsteen is far too busy to be on facebook replying to his messages. And I said bruce springsteen certainly wouldn't be trying him to join telegraph. i talked about modern ai's ability to replicate another person, but that didn't seem to take. the bruce being too busy did though, he said to me that "I guess I need to grow up" which made me feel bad for him. I had my mother talk to him and overheard him saying (not an exact quote) "I was talking to someone that seemed to be bruce springsteen, it's a shame, whoever i was talking to i was really enjoying talking about my childhood." so he seems to realize it wasn't the boss, though he doesn't understand it was most likely just a computer program.

Depending on this seniors mental state, reason and logic won't work anymore if the emotional investment has been made.

I am reminded of [this clip](https://clip.cafe/dogma-1999/stop-wait-wait-wait-wait-s4/).

Also, most glaringly, in the extremely unlikely event that Bruce Springsteen wanted to give you concert tickets, he would just give them to you. Not tell you that a multi platinum rock star needs you to buy a visa gift card from a 711 in order to get them.

Can you imagine how crazy scams are going to be when we’re all old? AI’s only getting better. We’re toast.

Yeah they are - my best friend's inlaws were just scammed out of $500K in California. Tragically, they first compromised his mother-in-law about the time she was diagnosed w/ stage 4 breast cancer then sadly she passed away a few months after that and the scammers just continued working on the father in law. Over 6 months, they managed to convince the couple to transfer wires to them out of their bank acct totaling their life savings, essentially ($500k). What was so convincing that this scammer could pull this off? Claim of representing themselves as a Mexican real estate agent that could help the couple unload their time share down in Cabo. The details are tough to comprehend but essentially it began with small wires here and there to shore up things so they could close on the property sale - e.g. unpaid municipal property taxes, title search, court fees, etc. This was before moving on to larger costs needed just so they could close and somehow they were convinced to transfer more than twice the expected proceeds from the sale of the timeshare (about $250K). Still in disbelief how this could be possible? Being removed by 2 degrees from this situation, details are sparse to me of how this could have unfolded but even when the last dime was gone the widower was still convinced "Tony" was his friend and wouldn't do this to him - even though they never met and only ever talked over the phone (be it for 10s of hours over many months). Sad story all around, pity my boy. It has fallen on him to try and pick up the pieces as his wife who just lost her mother to cancer has been to distraught to step up and help much. He's putting in calls to the FBI, secret service, the bank, credit agencies, etc etc. The entire thing is fucked but at least creditors can't take the father in laws home and he still has a small income from social security coming in. Be safe out there folks and look after your loved ones (especially if they are elderly).

> Why would he reach out personally? Because I’ve been such a big fan for so long. > Does he know Bruce? I mean basically. See above and also this chat with Bruce is really how we’ve gotten to know each other. >Has he been to his concerts before? So many. Again, big fan. > What’s the benefit of this “hookup”? Taking care of such a big fan is the right thing to do. This is neither a place for logic or emotion. It’s a place for getting dad’s affairs in order so he no longer has sole control over his finances and autonomy over his technology. Convince him this isn’t Bruce this week but it’ll be Bon Jovi next week and the IRS a week from then. Your dad is a target and you gotta make sure there are as few angles as possible for him to get manipulated. It’s not gonna get better from here.

Yeah but their Step Father is living the dream today. Some people would pay tens of thousands for the opportunity.

Thank God she believed you, at least

Great idea

And then become The Boss.

Can you ask him to please stop sucking on the chili dogs outside the Tastee Freeze? It's creeping out the other customers

What up, its John boi, how you doing broseph?

Pure curiosity - how old is your mom?

I'm literally going through this right now (Sam Heughan) and my mother lost f****** everything. 71 years old. Her house was foreclosed on and she was forced to "sell." (vultures)

That's not good because then he will think he had been talking to Springsteen all along!

Hi Boss.

Love you Bruce, but can you just admit that pink Cadillac is a crappy song?

Facebook doesn't care.

Bruce would lace up his ass kicking boots.

Why would Liam send anyone well wishes? That’s your dead giveaway right there.

I complimented his parka on instagram, he knows I have impeccable taste. 😇

Does he sign every post with "-lg xx"?

Tori Amos, now there's a name I have it heard in a long time

I should look for that, my step father used to be a huge stern fan.

I think the bank is legally supposed to probe somehow if you're withdrawing that much and if she responded with "its for the IRS", i would hope that any bank employee would stop her right then and there and explain its a scam. They may even be legally obligated to.


You.......

They love the Glory Days

Old people get scammed by fake celebrities on social media all the time. It's concerncingly common

That isn't a nice way of going about it, but sometimes it's the only way to get the scams to stop. My FIL with dementia was getting scammed on Facebook and LinkedIn and I finally just went into his account and unsubscribed from pretty much everything and then changed the settings so they were extremely restrictive and stopped most people from contacting him. That put an end to most issues coming from FB and LinkedIn. Also installed a PiHole on our network to stop most pop-ups and ads. Pop-up blockers on all web browsers on his phone and laptop.

> If he's so committed to his boomer gullibility... Cognitive decline is an unfortunate part of aging. The way you've phrased it here is unnecessarily mean.