Protect your parents from the Banksters

Banksters are the bad apples in the financial industry. Sadly, I have met more banksters than good bankers.

I always cringe when I hear of my mom going to the bank to renew her fixed deposit. There are always banksters waiting to ‘cheat’ her of her life savings.

For the elderly, they are not interested in risky financial products or even the infamous ‘guaranteed Structured Deposits’. They just want the interest from fixed deposits. But the banks prey on them whenever they have the chance.

One day, my mom asked me about a letter she received from the bank. It was a statement for a financial product she never signed up for. I looked up the date when the product came about and my mom recalled she went to the bank that day to renew her fixed deposit. The bankster tricked her into signing up for a financial product! I was so angry. We went to confront the bankster and got him to refund the money.

From that incident, I decided to write a ‘protection letter’ for my mom to bring to the banks. The basic strategy of the letter is that I will not sue the bank in the event of such ‘scams’ but that I will sue the bankster personally – that he acted on his own. It is virtually impossible to sue the bank, but my strategy is to give the banks a way out. These sorts of bankster salespeople are a dime a dozen. Why should the banks defend them if their actions are not condoned by the bank? It is easier to fire them. With this letter, I state that my mom is never interested in any financial products except fixed deposits. Having read this letter, if they continue to sell or trick my mom, then that is fraudulent behaviour.

So far, after giving my mom this letter, there have been no more incidents of fraudulent selling. Bankers will photocopy my letter and keep as a record.