Protecting Yourself and Your Loved One Against Fraud and Scams
What makes scams and fraud doubly awful is that they take advantage of the compassion, trust, and willingness to help that is so much a hallmark of the older generations.
It’s a sad reality that we all must be on guard every day to protect ourselves from fraud and scams. What makes scams and fraud doubly awful is that they take advantage of the compassion, trust, and willingness to help that is so much a hallmark of the older generations. Since frauds and scams come in a wide variety of flavors and trends, we’ve compiled a list of the most common current trends. A link at the bottom of this article will create a printout you can print and place in a commonly used area of your home.
Scams can be very creative in how they draw us in. Sometimes it’s a fake romantic interest who you meet online and suddenly down on their luck and urgently needs a loan; sometimes it’s someone posing as a government official seeking payment for a fictitious fine for missing jury duty; sometimes it’s an email or phone call, seemingly from a grandchild, seeking financial help to get out of an emergency situation. In most cases these scams prey on our fears and try to prompt us to pay out of fear.
As a family caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease you have the added challenge of needing to monitor your loved one’s risk as the disease progresses as well.
There are several lines of defense against such scams.
Stay educated about scams in the area where you live. Often there are online community bulletin boards or “List Servers” for your neighborhood where people report scams and other occurrences. Your local services for the elderly may also have alerts about scams.
Do not answer calls from someone whose phone number, name, or affiliation are unfamiliar or shown as “unknown” on your phone. This behavior goes against most peoples’ basic instincts, but it’s an important habit to get used to. Most spam and scam callers do not leave a message – legitimate callers, however, typically will leave a message, and you can call them back.
Never click on a link that is sent in an email from someone who is unknown or unfamiliar. And be wary, too, of an email from someone you or your loved one may know, but the email itself looks suspicious, such as an email that simply says: “Hi! Look at this!” These kinds of emails can arise from hackers breaking into a friend’s email and spamming all the names in the address book. In either case the link could lead to downloading malicious software that would then attack you or your loved one’s computer.
Never give anyone personal information over the phone or internet, no matter how “urgent” the circumstances. Financial institutions and government agencies such as Medicare make it abundantly clear that they will never ask for any personal information such as account numbers and passwords. If someone does ask for that information, hang up and call back the institution, to double check whether the request is legitimate.
For family caregivers there are some additional steps you can take to “de-risk” you and your loved one from falling victim to a scam. These steps can include:
Power of Attorney: Legally identify yourself as the only individual with legal power to make decisions about financial activities such as bank transfers for you and your loved one’s joint or individual account(s).
Secure Documents: Make sure all your loved one’s important documents are in a safe place, inaccessible to your loved one’s ability to quickly access them.
Do regular financial reviews: On a regular basis, check your loved one's bank activity and credit reports.
Auto-payment: Set up automatic payment for bills, so that your loved one is not regularly writing checks.
Credit Limits: Give your loved one a debit card or cash card with a capped, low-level limit. Limit their abilities to withdraw funds from the bank.
Freeze/Monitor Credit Cards: Put your loved one’s credit applications on “freeze”, so no new credit cards can be applied for.
Communication: If your loved one is in their early stages of memory loss, keep an open dialogue about scams and warning signs to watch for. This education will empower them to be vigilant and the open line of communication will encourage them to reach out for assistance in the event they’ve put themselves at risk.
Register: Put your and your loved one’s phone number onto the National Do Not Call Registry: https://www.donotcall.gov/ . This won’t protect you from scams and frauds, but it will potentially reduce the number of robo-calls and spam.
Avoiding being the victim of scams and frauds is an ongoing process that requires your regular attention. With a proactive plan for monitoring, and putting in place financial and technological safeguards, you and your loved one can avoid falling victim to scams.
