About ten years ago my mother, then 75, began exhibiting signs of senile dementia. About the time my father died in 1997, MBNA sent my mother a credit card unsolicited. I can only guess that MBNA did this because of my parents' sterling credit history. One of the problems with sending out credit cards to people they did not personally know was that some of these MBNA cards would end up in the hands of persons no longer mentally competent to handle their own affairs.
The rest of the family was unaware that MBNA had issued this card to my mother.By the time we discovered what MBNA had done, over $12,000 worth of charges had been posted to my mother's account. Every one of these charges came from a company called Lottonet, based in Nevis-St. Kitts. (This is a Caribbean island whose primary export is financial fraud.)
Once we discovered these fraudulent charges we contacted MBNA both by phone and by mail. MBNA responded that they would not reverse the charges because more than 60 days had passed since the charges were posted.
Since then we have placed my mother in a nursing home for Alzheimer's patients and I manage her financial affairs. Over the years I have received dozens of letters from MBNA and its various collection agencies, all of them demanding payment in full of the original charges plus accrued interest. I used to respond to their letters but now they all go directly into the trash. (The last one I opened demanded over $25,000.)
I have no legal obligation to pay a fraudulent debt. MBNA could file suit against my mother if they could find her, but my lawyer tells me that I have no duty to reveal where her nursing home is. If they were to sue, the case would be dismissed as my mother is not mentally able to understand the charges and/or assist in her own defense.
MBNA will undoubtedly keep trying to collect and I will keep right on ignoring their worthless demands.in case anyone from MBNA is reading this, my mother has well over $800,000 in stocks and you ain't getting one damn dime of it!
MBNA has a great scam: send a credit card to a senile person, let an off-shore scam artist max out the account, and then claim it's all legit because the senile account holder did not object in time.
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