Beware Mysterious Mark - A True Account of Elder Financial Abuse
It can happen to anyone. Your parent. Your partner. Your neighbour.
Beware Mysterious Mark is a ten-part audio documentary about elder financial abuse, built around one harrowing true account of how a predator isolated an elderly man from his family and systematically took control of his life and his assets. Names have been changed. Events and conversations are drawn directly from the family's own detailed records.
Told by storyteller Nancy Miles, whose partner Brooke watched her father taken piece by piece over seven years, the series weaves dramatized conversations re-enacted by actors with commentary from professionals who see these cases every day: an estate planning lawyer, a geriatrician, a capacity assessment specialist, and a researcher whose doctoral work focused on loneliness in older adults.
Together, they expose how undue influence actually works. How charm, patience, and calculated lies can turn a trusted new friend into a captor. How family members, doctors, police and financial institutions all try to help, and how often that help arrives too late. And most importantly, what warning signs to watch for, and what to do when you see them.
Elder financial abuse exists in every community. It is rarely a single phone scam. More often it is the slow, deliberate theft of everything a person has worked a lifetime to build. Better informed families, friends and neighbours can make a real difference.
Ten episodes. New episodes are released weekly.
Beware Mysterious Mark is a Radio Sidney production. This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada's New Horizons for Seniors Program.
Show notes, episode transcripts and resources: themarkdoc.ca
Contact: info@radiosidney.ca
Episodes
8 episodes
Trailer 2
A friendly new face. A little too helpful. A little too close to Dad.Beware Mysterious Mark is the audio drama about the kind of danger that doesn't break in. It gets invited. As Mark delves deeper into one family's life, the peop...
Mark Doesn't Have a Dime
Constable Fredericks of the RCMP arrives at Poplar Hill after quietly investigating Mark Marshall's background. He spends an hour with Bert, gently outlining the warning signs of elder financial abuse, then alerts Brooke of his concerns and gal...
Bonus Episode One - Charlotte Salomon
In this special bonus episode of Beware the Mysterious Mark, producer Bill Collins sits down with Victoria lawyer Charlotte Salomon of Infinity Law, a board member of the Estate Planning Council of Victoria, for an in-depth conversatio...
I Don't Want to Live With Them
Mark and Donna begin maneuvering Bert toward buying them a house, first one property, then another, then another. Brooke is expected to participate financially but when she pushes back, the next scheme appears. Bert privately admits he doesn't ...
That Guy's Stalking Your Dad!
Bert's geriatric psychiatrist tells Brooke that Mark is a sociopath, and she's in for a long fight. Days later, a notary calls out of the blue. Mark brought Bert into her office to change his will and revoke Brooke's Power of Attorney. The prof...
I'd Be Honoured To Change Your Dad's Nappies
With Diane gone Bert is grieving and lonely. Mark and his partner Donna step into the void lavishing attention on the elderly widower while making increasingly bold offers to move in take over his care and be the family he needs. Brooke is hear...
He Makes Me Do Things I Don't Want To
When 90-year-old Bert Cooper meets the charismatic Mark Marshall, he believes he's found a kindred spirit, a worldly, accomplished friend full of stories. His wife Diane, senses that something is off. His only child, daughter Brooke, finds the ...
