But Alfred’s reaction tells them that there is much more to the story than he is letting on.
And your dad was like very cavalier about it.
[00:00:32] Chris Mancinelli: Yeah, out scam the scammer he would say.
[00:00:46] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
[00:00:51] Bob: Sometimes in life you might do everything right and things still go wrong.
But I want to start the story during happier times, during a father/son/daughter-in-law road trip.
Here’s Chris Mancinelli.
[00:01:47] Chris Mancinelli: It was for my dad’s 70th birthday.
And so I was trying to spend more time with him.
And so we thought let’s take him on a trip.
So we um, yeah, we had planned a trip to take him out.
[00:02:38] Bob: Dad loves the trip but one stop really stands out.
[00:02:44] Chris Mancinelli: One of the interesting things is we drove past like a military installation.
We, we pulled over and parked and just watched the drones fly over this airfield.
So that was kind of funny.
[00:03:23] Bob: That’s Chris' wife, Christie.
But we had no idea that he had such an interest in drones until, until we got there.
But it was nice.
[00:04:31] Bob: Yeah, that’s very beautiful, really.
Not many people take the time to do that, so I admire that.
[00:04:35] Chris Mancinelli: Thanks.
[00:05:03] Bob: Con Ed, yeah.
[00:05:04] Chris Mancinelli: Yeah.
Before that though, he did, I, I did have a sister.
I never, I never knew her.
[00:05:29] Bob: Oh.
So then my brother was 1 and then I was born I guess five years later.
But I can imagine it, it would have been hard for him to do.
[00:06:45] Chris Mancinelli: (chuckles) Yeah.
So it was a softer relationship, I guess.
This was maybe in 2018, probably 2018 timeframe.
Like dont, arent you worried about these amounts uh mysteriously going somewhere?
Um, you know we didn’t have lavish things.
We were very fiscally responsible, and he instilled that in us.
So that was kind of my brother’s point of view, and he was sharing it with me.
But honestly at the time and I was traveling for work a lot.
They know that’ll just make him shutdown anyway.
[00:10:08] Chris Mancinelli: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
You know it was already; it was like instantly a fight.
He tries that gentle approach to see if he can get to the bottom of it.
[00:11:22] Bob: And there are other strange things happening too.
[00:11:41] Christie Mancinelli: Yeah.
And…
[00:11:57] Chris Mancinelli: That’s right.
[00:11:58] Christie Mancinelli: And I was like Whoa, really?
And your dad was like very cavalier about it.
[00:12:57] Chris Mancinelli: That’s true, yeah, out scam the scammer he would say.
[00:13:22] Bob: And it got away from him quickly.
Um, they, you know, said they, they don’t want him banking with them anymore.
And so he had to find a different bank.
So my dad thought, you know fell into these traps.
Um, I had encouraged him to file a report.
[00:16:14] Bob: But even with the police Alfred is evasive.
And it doesn’t help that my dad was very evasive about the whole thing.
[00:16:48] Bob: Sure, sure.
[00:16:49] Chris Mancinelli: And um…
[00:16:50] Bob: Makes sense.
So he lost money through that.
[00:17:08] Bob: But he initiated the police contact.
[00:17:11] Chris Mancinelli: In that case, yes, yeah.
[00:17:17] Chris Mancinelli: He was.
[00:17:19] Bob: I mean this sounds like such a tortured existence.
[00:17:29] Chris Mancinelli: It does.
You know, like maybe, maybe it’s a scam, but maybe it’s not.
And maybe I’ll come, you know, make out on this."
And, and I would say, “Dad, no.
It’s never, you’re never going to make out.
These are not designed that you might ever win.”
[00:17:55] Bob: But that’s more like buying a lottery ticket, right?
[00:17:57] Chris Mancinelli: Right, then going to a casino.
Chris tries to stay on the same side as his dad to draw more out from him.
You know not intending to get involved, but to learn more about them.
And, and he wouldn’t open up in those cases either.
And, and then invariably he’d always lose at the end.
[00:18:34] Bob: But Chris does persuade his dad to get some help.
That was a start, I think.
We had an elder care manager go to his house and meet with him.
So mentally he’s really, he’s really there.
Things are, you know, clean enough, you know things are orderly enough.
Like he’s cooking for himself.
Like he’s, he’s living a good life by all means.
So…
[00:20:32] Bob: Sure, sure.
[00:20:33] Chris Mancinelli: And we didn’t want that.
And he doesn’t, he didn’t want that, you know, he was very independent.
[00:20:42] Chris Mancinelli: Right, he’s just making bad choices.
[00:20:50] Chris Mancinelli: Right.
I mean how did he meet these people?
[00:21:37] Christie Mancinelli: He did play Words with Friends.
[00:21:39] Chris Mancinelli: He did.
[00:21:41] Christie Mancinelli: Yeah.
[00:21:41] Chris Mancinelli: He did.
And then so he’d say, “Do I know you?”
And then they’d say, “Oh, I think so.”
You know that’s it.
[00:21:54] Bob: Once these people connected with Alfred, they’d pull on his heartstrings.
That technique really seems to work.
He would somehow send them bitcoin or something like that?
[00:22:16] Chris Mancinelli: It was almost always bitcoin.
He also used Zelle.
He also sometimes used direct wire transfers.
So he, they would pass him around.
you oughta pay these bills or we cannot release, you know, the person."
And I, I would ask him, “Dad, what hospital do you know accepts bitcoin?”
And he says, “Oh, you don’t know, like they all do now.”
Like that’s the, “You’re behind the times, son.”
Like, hey, this is your romantic interest in a hospital?
You know send, to send a gift, like you know does anything makes sense?
But then we’d get off the phone and hed just be right back into it.
What does that feel like?
[00:23:54] Chris Mancinelli: Yeah, it felt terrible.
[00:24:05] Bob: He was listening to you but he wasn’t listening to you.
[00:24:07] Chris Mancinelli: Yeah.
(choked up) Excuse me, I’m sorry.
Why don’t you have a room number?
What hospital is it at?
Oh, Cleverland Clinic.
There’s no such place.
There’s Cleveland Clinic.
Why, you know Chris would question everything?
Why do you have to go through an intermediary in Mexico?
Um, I, I think I just got so frustrated at that point.
That’s actually when I lost hope.
[00:26:40] Chris Mancinelli: Alexa Bliss is a real-life um, wrestling um, personality.
[00:27:16] Chris Mancinelli: Yes, that’s right, that’s right.
Didn’t give them their money.
So even though she was making millions, she had no access to it.
Um, they weren’t allowed to like visit fans, um, the whole thing was very controlling.
So and then she would get sick a lot.
She would get hurt.
And I learned all of this because of my dad.
But in every scenario, there was a request for money.
So she couldn’t eat because Vince McMann had all her money.
So send money for food.
They watched her perform.
Isn’t she going to come see you, like she’s in town?
She knows where you live.
Don’t you want to hang out or something?"
But, of course, Vince McMann would never let that happen.
[00:30:15] Bob: So no, no backstage passes.
[00:30:18] Chris Mancinelli: (chuckles) Unfortunately, no.
[00:30:29] (impersonator) Thank you so much for your message.
It was so sweet of you to write me.
I’m extremely flattered with your request.
So I said, okay, great.
You know there’s no interaction.
I’m like, “Hello.”
So it was a fail on their part.
There’s lots of little things that happened along the way.
[00:31:43] Chris Mancinelli: Yes.
What are you wearing?
And he, he claimed that he found it in his mailbox.
And then so he started wearing it.
And then after we freaked out about it, he stopped wearing it.
He also got like small jewelry; kind of trinket jewelry sent to him.
He one time got pizza delivered to his house for his birthday.
You know all from the scammers.
[00:32:49] Chris Mancinelli: Yeah.
[00:33:03] Chris Mancinelli: Yeah, yeah.
I mean they had all his information.
Eventually it all catches up with Chris.
you could’t keep driving like this.
Do you remember that, Chris?
[00:34:11] Chris Mancinelli: Oh yeah, yeah, I do.
[00:34:22] Chris Mancinelli: Sounds so…crazy
[00:34:22] Christie Mancinelli: That’s right.
Yeah, that’s, yeah, yeah.
[00:34:26] Bob: It all finally comes to a head in the middle of 2021.
He drove, drove up here.
And um, so we, we had a good heart-to-heart while he was here.
And I came to learn that he had given almost all his money away.
But he hasn’t.
[00:35:42] Bob: That’s next week on The Perfect Scam.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch connection Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
