Protecting The Elderly From Scams
Financial scams are all too common these days and unfortunately fraudsters tend to target the most vulnerable among us -- the elderly. So how can you make sure your elderly friends and relatives don’t get taken advantage of?
Make Them Aware of Scams
The first step is education! Do a little research yourself on common scams targeting the elderly. You will find that many are phone and email based and rely on that fact that older people tend to not be as computer literate. Some may even sound pretty legitimate because they use a small amount of personal information or involve Medicare. Some may call and say a relative has been in a terrible accident and needs money now, others will say something is wrong with their health insurance and they need their Medicare identification number or social security number.
Be sure to have a few examples and talk to your friends and relatives about them. If you can bring them some examples then it will be much easier for them to understand and identify any scams that may come their way. Let them know that when in doubt it is okay to just say no to whoever is on the phone or contacting them through email. If the person contacting them is legitimate they will try again and you will have a chance to look them up in the meantime.
Let Them Know You Are There To Help
It can sometimes be difficult to ask for help or to admit you need a little extra help with something. Let them know that if they are ever unsure you would be happy to help them determine if a phone call or email is legitimate. It’s not shameful to not know! In this case a simple Google search might be the difference between deleting an email or blocking a phone number and losing thousands of dollars.
Check In Regularly & Encourage Credit Checks
Remember that new scams are always popping up so checking in every now and again is a good practice. Another great idea is encouraging elderly friends and relatives to check their annual credit reports to make sure everything is as it should be. You can do this free online or you can set up some kind of credit monitoring for them so they can be notified if there is any kind of suspicious activity.