People Who Came Into Large Sums Of Money Share How Friends And Family Turned On Them

21.

I was a stupidly well-paid contractor in Iraq just after the invasion in 2003. Moving money was harder then, especially from over there, so I had my parents set up an ’emergency account’ (it wasn’t just in case I was kidnapped, but it was in the back of my mind). There was about 60k in there- most of my net worth, and this included savings from before I went overseas. I didn’t yet have the account details- my parents didn’t want to send account numbers via email, blah blah bitty blah.

After only a week they asked to borrow ‘some’. My mom wasn’t working and they needed to pay for health insurance. Not a problem, but there goes… 10k? Wow. Oka-ay…. I didn’t say anything.

I didn’t say anything when she asked for ‘a little’ because she needed to replace her car- this was about a month later. I agreed. 3-4K for a decent used car wasn’t a big deal, but my spidey-sense was tingling. It turns out she dropped 10K on a down payment for a new car.

By the time I was able to arrange for transfer to a new account that they did not have access to, I was sweating. I wrote and asked them to move the other 40K (I was very specific on that number). I gave them the transfer details. I waited.

Nothing. Nothing for wa-ay too long. I called a bunch. They never picked up (they always picked up). I told them when I was going to call and I called when I knew they’d be home. Silence. This went on until I said ‘fuck’ on the answering machine and they picked up immediately, because how dare I use that language with them?

They’ve been busy (being so retired/ unemployed) and they’ll get to ‘my thing when they get to it’, and pretended not to hear me when I asked three fucking times how much was fucking left. She sounded nervous when she whispered, “Over 20… I think”. They had set up this account less than 6-7 weeks before.

I don’t remember exactly what was said, but at one point that my panicking mother tried to tell me that a chunk of this last ‘bit’ (that they must have forgotten to ask for before they took it), was for health insurance (that they had asked for six weeks ago).

The deposit they finally made- later that day- was for 30K, so they managed to replace a chunk of what they outright stole from their son in less than 24 hours. I ignored lots of emails asking for help making car payments on mom’s new car.

We barely speak now. I figure it cost me 30K to buy my way out of my family. I’dve paid double. —bobbyjihad

22.

Friend of mine won over a million dollars. Winnings are not taxed here btw so that’s proper 1,000,000 winnings.

She bought a home and upgraded her car (to like a 2 year old corolla).

She was cunning enough to know that people (acquaintances, annoying family) would figure out she won or came into money.

So she lied. Said she won about $20,000 that she was able to put towards a deposit and that she was helped out by her parents to get the full deposit.

Nah. She paid her house in full but for all those nosy people know, she has a mortgage and is just careful with her money.

It helps that she isnt really a flashy big spender. She didnt start flashing cash around.

Oh so that’s a non-horror story! —sjp1980

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