Im pretty sure its permanent! My understanding (correct me if Im wrong) is that heat stamping is applying a hot letter stamp to the leather piece with ink involved. Thus the ink is bound to the leather through a process of heat and an indentation is created in the leather that mimics the stamp used. SO basically its stamped with ink, heat and pressure. You end up with an indent in the leather in the shape of your chosen letters and ink that is fused to the leather itself. So even if you tried to scratch it off, (if you even can get the ink off) you would still be left with an indentation of the letters.
Now painting is where they apply paint to the leather/canvas (ex. groom collection) and that is applied on top of the material. Many people have reported wear and that the painting peels off/rubs off with use. If you have initials in the paint you could probably scratch it off (but I wouldnt suggest this, because it would scratch your bag!).
I doubt you have painting, as most wallets would be heat stamped. So basically in my opinion, you cant remove it and if you tried it would ruin the wallet. I suggest your mom either live with it, or try and sell it, or even ask LV store if they can re hot stamp overtop of it somehow to change the initials. Maybe they can put like a big round dot over the letters you dont like hahah or something. If its a P and need to be a B maybe they can fix that ?!?!? Im not sure. But to answer you, I highly doubt you can scratch it off and if you did it would still leave the indent and also you would ruin your wallet.
