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I've written about the poor decision making of the elderly in another thread. But we noticed that our mother had diminished capacity for making decisions as she moved toward dementia. She was fiercely independent, but, as we found out later, was a sucker for credit cards obtained at retail outlets. She had perhaps 20 different credit cards. Luckily she didn't remember that she had them and she usually did not use them.
Later when she had been living in assisted care, we found out by accident that she had been getting calls from people who were trying to get money out of her. She couldn't remember exactly what they told her, but I believe they told her she was in danger of losing her house. But as she didn't own a house, and did not have access to her money, there was no real danger, I don't think. We changed her number and had it made unlisted that very day.
I do think that phone scammers target the elderly, who do tend to believe them when they tell the various stories. So that is the nature of this post. The elderly ARE being targeted.
So how do we protect others and ourselves? Unlisted numbers are probably a good strategy. I know of bank tellers talking elders out of withdrawing large sums of money for various bogus reasons. I don't know how to protect them online from bogus pleas for help, purportedly from their grandchildren or which ask for SS numbers.
Publicity probably helps, but at a certain point elders simply don't have good judgement. Or they are too skeptical, which might also not serve them well.
I hope someone here has constructive ideas beyond dismissing this as a problem anyone might have.
You can't protect them all. Hopefully, family watches over some of them but there will always be a certain percentage that gets duped. This isn't anything new, just more avenues for a criminal to do it.
From what I've read online, it seems like some seniors groups (for instance, associations and/or volunteers in some 55+ communities and seniors-helping-seniors type groups) are doing some very helpful things toward addressing this.
They're raising awareness by publicizing scams in their newsletters, on their websites, etc., and cautioning people about situations in which to have their guard up.
But also, they are often organizing to provide services through the community--either directly offering the services themselves--everything from sponsoring onsite health care screening and flu shots to transportation to doctors and grocery stores for those who can no longer drive easily--or connecting people with services indirectly--for instance by communicating info on available social services to community members who need those services but don't know they exist, or putting together lists of recommended vendors (or offering a contract with a specific vendor), so that, for instance, if your roof starts to leak or your refrigerator breaks, you know who you can call who isn't just someone random who's advertising (or who is showing up at your door telling you your roof needs to be replaced). Basically, helping people obtain the services they need within a somewhat protected environment.
I was very impressed to see from their website that one of these senior groups (this is one of the groups that isn't part of an HOA but that the local community living in individual homes can join) even mentioned having retained a professional who was available to review any estimates for work by a contractor, and even come to the person's home if needed, to check that the work the contractor was proposing was actually what was needed to fix the problem and that the cost was in line with the work being done.
Of course many people are already rooted in a community where they know or can learn these things and obtain these kinds of support through their various networks, but given how many of us relocate (or, even if we stay put, could possibly outlive the people in our support systems), these groups are filling a gap.
Part of freedom means being able to make your own decisions. If we "protect" seniors too much from scammers, we'll have no alternative, but to either lock them up or put them under 24 hour surveillance. I am only using a little hyperbole here. It takes an enormous amount of effort to protect people from themselves.
The elderly are no less entitled to freedom than any other group of adults.
About the only thing you can try to do is educate the elderly about different scams that exist. I know my 94 year old mother still is sharp enough to tell a scam a mile away. My deceased father could have done it until virtually the day that he died.
Swindles all rely upon greed and very often make the mooch think that he's getting the better of the other in some sleazy or even illegal way. As Joe "Yellow Kid" Weil was wont to opine, "You can only swindle a greedy man. The easiest is the dishonest man." For example: hey mister, my boss sent me out with too much roofing material. If you pay cash I'll do the job for half price. Joseph Weil who got his nickname from the yellow kidskin gloves he wore was one of the greatest con men of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries.
Does the roof scam I just described work? Sure. They use the cheapest materials and shoddy labor. They're willing to cut that price if necessary. Many contractors have their salesmen go out dressed as workers. For example: hey mister, we just did a big job down the road for Mr. X. We have some leftover material and I'll give you a great price so I don't have to take it back to Denver or wherever. I guess that it never occurs to people that he's going back to Denver anyway and the material is already on the truck.
I went out one day a few years ago when my dogs barked. A very clean "workman" informed me that they'd been pouring asphalt on the roads at Erik Prince's place (yes, that Erik Prince) a few miles down the road. They had some left over and could give me a great deal because they didn't want to take it back to Billings. This could have been true because asphalt is different from a stack of shingles. I told them politely that I liked my dirt road and that asphalt would look goofy at my country place. There was no hard sell and they left. A few days later I was driving down the gravel county highway and saw a really steep private drive with brand new asphalt. That must be fun when it's icy.
I guess they thought the name dropping helped; maybe it did. I don't know if Prince spends much time there although his mother apparently lives there most of the time. From what I know of the facilities, it's a very secure place. But I don't know Erik Prince or his mother (although I could have easily walked past them in Walmart) nor do I have their telephone numbers so I couldn't very well have checked the reference if I had wanted to pave my drive.
Everybody has a story. There's an old adage in sales that the salesman must sell the sizzle, not the steak. Always check the hands of the workman with a deal. If he has a manicure you may assume that he's telling at least a little fib.
To end with a seemingly off topic remark: Nancy Draper who left the Buffalo Bill Historical Center fifteen million dollars to fund the Draper Natural History Museum was a very pleasant local lady who had trouble getting around because she weighed about 400# and shopped at Walmart. Would you folks consider her a typical Walmart shopper? Would some of the nastier posters on c-d have laughed at her? Would they have kept laughing if someone had told them what she was worth? Always remember that people may not be quite what they seem to be.
In Kansas, I went to the Attorney General's website for other "business" and found that they listed the different scams running at the time. I know the newspapers try to pick up and publish that info. I always called the city office in the other city because the scammers were often out and that lets them know what is going on and the police will sometimes cruise the neighborhood to look for them in action. Best way to go is word of mouth so find the "town crier" and let them know so the word will travel. So many of the seniors don't have internet especially in the more remote areas because of cost and unfamiliarity with the technology. A lot do get the local newspaper if available.
While I agree many rely on greed there is also more that rely on deception as IRS agents or others. Even many so called charities are not really valid as we have seen.
Part of freedom means being able to make your own decisions. If we "protect" seniors too much from scammers, we'll have no alternative, but to either lock them up or put them under 24 hour surveillance. I am only using a little hyperbole here. It takes an enormous amount of effort to protect people from themselves.
The elderly are no less entitled to freedom than any other group of adults.
About the only thing you can try to do is educate the elderly about different scams that exist. I know my 94 year old mother still is sharp enough to tell a scam a mile away. My deceased father could have done it until virtually the day that he died.
It is one thing to have a philosophical problem with "protecting" some segment of the population. But isn't that a bit simplistic? Do you want to protect children from harm? Do you want to protect or at least warn against, say accepting drugs from their "friends" or strangers? Or how about protecting the mentally disabled? Do you feel that the mentally disabled should be able to understand that people sometimes lie and that they might steal from them? Or should they be allowed to fend totally for themselves?
I think you see where I am going. Your parents have retained their acuity of mind. But many elders do not. They reason simply, many times, as would a mentally disabled person, or as would a child of thirteen or fourteen. You might think interdicting a payment to a questionable source as limiting someone's liberty. But whose liberty is infringed upon if the elder suddenly has no money? Or who has to figure out what to do if their credit card is stolen and used to charge several thousand dollars of goods? If the elder is lucky, a family member can intervene and handle things, but what if there isn't a family member handy?
I don't think there are simple answers to this question, including the simple answer that they don't need protecting.
There used to be an itinerant family that preyed on elders in the St. Louis area. Every year or two they'd stop by and convince an elderly person that they could roof or repair the driveway or fix the furnace. I think they sometimes convinced them of the need for the repair.
At any rate, they did the "work" but it was always unsatisfactory, and of course the family was gone by the time this was understood. I believe they hit in the spring, and probably moved on to another community as the season progressed.
I imagine that this is not that unusual anywhere.
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Would you folks consider her a typical Walmart shopper? 
