Well, you know, over the past 18 seasons,
I've done a lot of what we call catfish shows.
That's where someone is defrauding someone,
trying to get their money.
They steal an identity, pretend to be that person,
and then start getting money from people.
When my guest today, Candice, emailed me,
I thought, wow, this could be a first.
Candice says she has been so determined
to prove to her mom, Lois, that she's being scammed,
that in the past, she herself created a fake identity
to catfish her mom's alleged catfish.
Candice's aunt, Luanne, says she has also tried
to intervene, but despite her efforts,
she says her older sister. Lois, ended her 37-year marriage
and wiped out her entire retirement account for online love.
Now, Lois says she's here today to get me to help her, too,
but for a reason that her daughter, Candice,
and her younger sister, Luanne,
might be surprised to learn.
Before we hear from Lois,
here's what Candice and Luanne have to say.
Take a look at this.
My mom has become addicted to online romance scams.
My sister, Lois, and her husband were married 37 years.
Recently, they divorced.
She had never been on social media and at first,
I thought, oh, how cute, my Mom's getting with the times.
Boy, was I wrong.
Over the past couple of years,
it's just bee one online scam after another.
One of my mom's first loves was a general
who was serving in Afghanistan.
Apparently, the Afghanistan government was so grateful
to the general for his service that they rewarded him
with a suitcase full of gold, diamonds, and cash,
in which he was going to send to my mother for safe keeping.
The general told my sister that he loved her
and he wanted to marry her.
My sister was opening credit cards so that she
could send the general money.
I knew this was a total scam and I wanted
to prove it to my mom.
What I did was create a fake profile
and I started to catfish the general himself.
I spoke to the general for about two to three weeks
and he told my mother and I some of the exact same stories,
sent us some of the exact same pictures.
At first, my mom believed that the general
was a fake, but within a few days,
she was back to falling for his lies.
Then there was a gentleman by the name of Fred Adler.
Lois started taking payday loans so she
could help Fred get out of Africa.
Sure enough, like clockwork, Fred ended up missing
his plane and the government refused to buy
him a ticket back, so he was on his own.
I called Fred and I told Fred I would pay for his flight
for the next day and he told me he had business
to still take care of and then, he hung up on me.
Last I knew, Fred was wandering the streets aimlessly
in New York because he could not find a Bank of America.
As of a few weeks ago, my mom's most recent guy
is a gentleman by the name of Paul.
Lois told me that he was in Africa,
collecting his uncle's inheritance.
I said to my sister and once again, this is a scam.
She says, no, she knows it's real.
At this point, she is completely destitute
and has nothing left.
My sister has nothing to her name
but a card table and a matress.
I really hope that Dr. Phil can get through to my mother
because if not, I feel like this is our last chance.
(dramatic music)
Well, I'm glad you're here.
I wish you'd come a long time ago, but she wouldn't.
Correct. You tried.
Yes. And she wouldn't do it.
Correct. So I get that.
And listen, I really wanna get this done with her
and understand, I take no pleasure whastoever
in crushing somebody's dream and fantasy.
This is, I hate that she's gonna have to face this reality
because it's devastating, right?
Correct. Yes.
You mourn the loss even if a fictional lover
because it's real to her.
And so, she will face that loss and then,
she will realize, oh my god, I've lost all of this money.
And Candice, you say that she's lost $100,000.
I, yes, I think it's somewhere around that range.
Maybe even more.
Yeah, it's a little more, actually,
I think, when we do the close math.
But it's about 100,000 bucks.
Yes. And a 37-year old marriage
to your father. That's correct,
yes sir.
So that's what I mean.
When this hits her, obviously, it's very difficult,
and we have to be very compassionate about that.
This is not funny, it's not a joke to me.
It's something that I take seriously
'cause it's gonna hurt her a lot and I wanna be,
you're gonna have to support her through
this and take care of her.