No one wants their senior parent to become the victim of a scam, but it happens to thousands of seniors every single day. And in some cases seniors can lose huge chunks of money or even their entire savings. There is a lot of information about seniors and their families on how to avoid being scammed. If the worst happens and your senior loved one does get scammed, these are the things that you and your senior parent should do immediately:
Change All Passwords
If your senior parent is the victim of a scam the very first thing that you should do is change all of their passwords. Email, social media, bank, and credit card company passwords should all be changed. Make sure that you write down the new password so that your senior loved one will have them but change all passwords. Start with the passwords for any credit and banking apps or accounts. If you can turn on 2 factor authentication for those accounts, do that.
Call The Bank And Put An Alert On All Accounts
Call any financial institutions where your senior loved one has accounts including any banks that they have investment, 401k, or other large accounts with. Ask the bank to put an alert on your senior parent’s accounts so that if there is any activity on those accounts you and your senior parent will be notified. Sometimes you can manage to cut off access to any money before the scammers can get access to it. Putting an alert on the account also lets the banks know there is a problem. That way if charges are made on credit cards or debit cards your senior loved one probably won’t be responsible for them.
Freeze Debit And Credit Cards
Immediately freeze or cancel all debit cards and credit cards. Most banks and credit card companies allow you to freeze card activity just by logging into an app so that you don’t need to call each bank and card company individually. Once you have frozen the cards or cancelled them ask to have new ones issued with new numbers. That way even if the scammers somehow get ahold of the old debit and credit card numbers they will already be deactivated.
Get Identity Monitoring
After cutting off as much access to your senior parent’s money as possible set up identify theft monitoring on your senior parent’s accounts. Sometimes it’s not just money that scammers are after. They could try to steal your senior parent’s identity and open credit accounts or other accounts in their name using their personal information. Identity theft monitoring will alert you and your senior loved one if any new accounts are opened using your senior parent’s information. If any new accounts do pop up dispute them immediately and let the companies know that they are fraudulent so that your senior loved one isn’t held responsible for any purchases or debts made through those accounts.
Rely on Help from Home Care
If your senior is struggling with cognition and fraud awareness, consider bringing in home care providers to support your senior. Home care can be there for mobility assistance, meal preparation, light housekeeping, transportation and also to help avoid scams. Consider the many benefits of home care for your parent.
If you or an aging loved one are considering home care in Dallas, TX, please contact the caring staff at Clear Path Home Care today. Call (817) 631-7710
Clear Path Home Care provides compassionate, high quality home care in Parker County, Tarrant County, Johnson County, Hood County, Somervell County, Erath County, Bosque County and Hamilton County in Texas.
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