I think my dad is a victim of marriage and bank fraud?

[Amber]

My dad, 56, has been a heavy drinker for all my life. I think it may have started to affect his thinking because nine months ago, he started talking to a woman he met online and started calling her his friend. The woman, 30, is from Ghana. Four months after they met, this woman told my dad that she was in love with him and wanted to marry him. He said he wanted to wait. Three months after that, she was telling him they were legally getting married in Ghana. She had my dad send a couple thousand dollars and her brother represented him in the wedding. My dad says the marriage is legit in Ghana, but not the US and that he feels like he got "duped" into marrying her.

When I logged onto facebook later that day, my dad noticed I had a notification. It was a friend request from her "brother". He then proceeded to tell me that he promised I would date her brother, who claims to be 20. I have a boyfriend already and I told my dad no, but my dad grabbed the mouse and hit accept. When I went onto this guy's facebook page, he looked 30! Since then, I've unadded him.

Whenver my dad wants to talk to his "wife", he has to call the "brother" first to ask for permission. My dad justifies it as a culture thing, but I don't believe it. I asked my father why he'd marry someone he hasn't even touched and he said he loves her.

He was also "dating" other women online at the time, ages 31, 26, and 24, and two others who he didn't talk about in detail, and giving them all money. He was "dating" the 26-year-old for 4 years and I asked why he chose to be with the 30-year-old whom he didn't know nearly as long. He said the 26-year-old is more like a daughter to him now and that the 30-year-old claims to be a virgin and is super pretty, while the 26-year-old has two children and is "fat".

He let me use his Yahoo Messenger account, which is his primary method of communicating with his "wife" and her "brother", and I asked his "wife" why my dad. She said the only explanation she had was that love works in strange ways.

He told this 30-year-old from Ghana about the others, and he told the others about his "marriage". The one from Ghana claims that one of these women showed up at her doorstep asking questions about her and her brother. The woman accused says she has no idea what his wife is even talking about or how she'd even find her in the first place.

He says that all of the women tell him they still love him, even though he's married, and that his "wife" still loves him even though the whole time they "dated", he was "seeing" other women and is still "seeing" other women.

I tried to get him to end all of these "relationships" by telling him how uncomfortable I am with him dating women who are so close to my age. He said they are not close to my age and they are from different cultures (mostly the Philippines and Ghana) so they have different values than I do.

Anyway, this woman claims that her grandfather was a United States citizens who lived in Florida and that her grandfather left her over $970,000.00. She claims she couldn't access it until she was married and that since she knows nothing of managing money, she wants my father to do it. He agreed. She directed him to a bank, which he first told me was in the United Kingdom, but is now saying Switzerland. He had to pay $9,000 out of his own pocket just to create an account, and now they want $7,500 more so that he can start making withdrawals from the account. When I asked him about the $9,000, he then changed the story saying it was only $600.

He says they could be asking for all this money because he is creating the account for over $970,000.00.

I am 19, and I know I'm young, but this whole thing right from the marriage to the fees concerning the bank sounds like a load of bs. My dad told me I'm too young to understand, but I think he's being irrational. He hasn't even finalized his divorce from my mother yet and the divorce has cost him $35,000 so far. He keeps telling me he can't afford to help out and pay for some of my college tuition anymore. I think he's messing with some dangerous stuff online but I'm not sure how to prove it.
What do you think? Have you heard of this kind of scam before? Is there a site with information providing proof or a site with a database I could look up scams with? Most importantly, how can I stop my dad from recklessly spending? He is 56, but it's impossible to tell he's acting weird until he speaks of these things. He's not senile or anything, so I can't ask for a mandatory psych evaluation. The cops couldn't do anything but lecture him on the dangers of the internet, which would just embarrass him.

His crazy spending on women he's never even met in person and his divorce are going to leave him a financial mess. He is a manager at a major defense weapons company and I'm worried that if his drinking is making him make these terrible decisions in his personal life, it's probably affecting work too.

Thanks for reading this!
Please be serious with your answers. This whole situation is really upsetting me and I'm extremely worried about the choices he is making. If you can't give a serious answer or don't feel like reading all of the details (I know I included a lot), please move to the next question. Thank you.

[chubbythrill931]

we are all a victim of marriage.

[Kittysue]

You need to call your local FBI Field Office and report all of this. Your dad is the victim of a common online scam.
http://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field/listing_by_state

It's only a matter of time until your dad spends ALL of his money. There is NO $970k -- that's a scam. You DO NOT pay to open a bank account or to start withdrawing money.

Call the FBI with all info and evidence you have. Ask if they can send someone over to tell your father he is the victim of a scam without telling him you reported it. Let him think the FBI was doing a sting on the scammers and found out he was one of their victims as part of their investigation