Are your parents safe or would they fall for this trick?

MILWAUKEE -- What if your calls were blocked by scammers trying to isolate your aging relatives and steal their cash? Contact 6's Katrina Cravy says it's awful and really happening.

It’s a scam targeting senior citizens across the nation and it should make you wonder if your family would see the signs. Listen to what Terry Liddell has to say about this scheme.

"It's about losing my father to a bunch of scammers, somebody that I love and care about to be able to be taken advantage of like that, and mentally destroyed over money," said Liddell.

The last three years of his father's life he says were hell. He lost all of his savings and the stress of that loss almost destroyed their father-son relationship.

"They just took him to the cleaners every way they could," said Liddell.

It all began when Oscar Liddell received a mailing claiming he had won $3 million and a new BMW. All he had to do was pay the fees and insurance and he would receive his big prize. Oscar, like many, bought into that and sent them money, over and over again according to the U.S. Postal Inspectors. His son says, “they started doing some information mining right off the bat. They started wanting to know a little about his background about his family. Within a week`s time they were calling 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 times a day.”

“He was living alone, his wife had pre-deceased him, he`s elderly, his son lived a good distance away during that time. And he really was lonely and vulnerable and they picked up on that,” says Postal Inspector Ronald Mayhew Jr.

First, Oscar sent hundreds, then thousands back, in all, he ended up giving the con men more than $100,000.

Postal inspectors also learned the scammers -- based in Jamaica -- took steps to isolate Liddell from the outside world.

"They were then able to call his telephone carrier and change the passwords to his account, and they blocked all calls that were not coming from them, so he couldn't contact his family," said Mayhew Jr.

His son says, "They just had him totally brainwashed. I couldn't convince him of anything. I tried to get his pastor to talk to him, I tried to get the Sheriffs to talk to him, his own accountant, family members.”

Nothing worked. The family is still dealing with this financial mess.

So please remember this: No legitimate lottery will ask for money up front! Please SHARE this post with the people you love.