Try: The elder population is becoming a huge target for all types of financial scams and identity theft as a caregiver and or family member you can follow some general guidelines and tips to help reduce the chance that your Care recipient (cr) will become a "victim " here are some helpful tips to follow take part as much as you can in the finances of the cr this may take some time because seniors in general are unwilling to "let go" of any of their financial decision making you might start out offering to check the cr’s calculations or help with taxes this will help form a bond of trust whereby you oversee more and more of financial management duties look for large deposits expenditures and other unusual activity make a checklist of all of the ways the elderly can become "targets" for scams and frauds include the cr in developing this checklist so that he or she can be informed and on the lookout for suspicious phone calls solicitations and so on watch the cr’s mailbox a mailbox full of promotional material could mean that your senior has become part of a "sucker" list and is considered a potential victim be aware of repeated phone calls soliciting donations scammers like to form a relationship with the elderly who are often lonely and respond to the friendliness and companionship that scammers offer if the phone caller say that he or she is a representative of the government or an official agency request the caller to send a written request on government letterhead with a phone number that can be checked do not reply to "time sensitive" offers that demand an immediate response before the offer expires do not give out any personal information social security number address or phone number bank account or bank routing numbers or credit card numbers over the phone unless you initiate the call and know who you are talking to it is very important that you shred any credit card offers that come through the mail or any personal information that needs to be discarded do not deposit large checks received from an undisclosed donor that request money to be forwarded from the cr’s bank account if the cr is a female living alone and a phone caller requests to speak with her husband the cr should not acknowledge that she lives alone it is not wise to enter numerous sweepstakes check the cr’s living quarters for a large number of packages lying around this could mean that the cr has been enticed into "over shopping" online warn the cr against responding to "door to door" handyman offers place the cr’s phone number on the national do not call list by calling 1-888-382-1222 or by visiting the website www donotcall gov another helpful website is www fraud org elderfraud references adapted from the website www agingcare com – follow the links to featured stories prevent elderly victims of scams adapted from the website www ehow com – follow the links to prevent elder fraud
Materials: n/a
Categories: Financial, Maintenance, Fully Aware, Somewhat Aware
Information: n/a
References: n/a
Keywords: n/a
*This information is listed as a Fact Sheet and is not explicitly medically licensed