DM keeps getting scammed

[InOtterNews]

Just as the title says really. She's 71 and late getting to grips with internet/SM. Last month it was a facebook scam and lost several hundred pounds.

I'm working at home today (moved back last year for caring duties) and just overhead call from Call Prevention Service. Have told her over the years numerous time, that she is signed up to TPS and call blocking companies cannot do what they claim - evidenced by the number of calls she gets. They wanted £180 she apparently owes them for this service and she was halfway through giving her card details before I intervened.

Earlier this morning we got a call from someone claiming to be from BT about our internet service (they are not our provider).

I talk to her a lot of about not ticking boxes on online forms, signing up for things that are too good to be true. Even asking her to wait until I am home before going ahead with an online purchase. But obviously, I can't be here all the time to watch over her (and nor do I want to).

Any advice on how I can get through to her

You can set the debit and credits card up so they won’t work over the phone Lloyds and Santander offer this on their APP not sure about other banks
But this means It only works with the pin and card at the same time no contactless or over the phone internet transactions

You can also request that the she is recognised as a vulnerable adult with her bank /credit card and any transactions over xxx amount need to be authorised
You could have it so that your number is the number the bank / credit card text in case of a suspicious payment so it won’t be authorised initially unless you reply YES. and it has to be done again
I’ve done all this for my parents

Just a warning with call blocking - our local hospital calls come through as a private or withheld number. So if you only allow approved numbers, you may be blocking important calls - we've had calls we really wouldn't have wanted to miss, and that's even more likely for older people.

Setting up and activating a POA doesn't actually mean loss of independence. We set up POA's for the PiL's and activated them (with Fil's agreement) when scamming issues and mobility became a severe issue. PiL's still had full control of their bank accounts, cards and cheque books etc but with the added bonus of us being able to do their banking, sort out financial matters for them, do their shopping and buy stuff on the internet in order to make their lives easier. We also went through their finances and got rid of loads of 'insurance/investment' policies that they were sold in the 1990's that were taking income but earning next to nothing - with the proceeds from these we bought them funeral prepayment plans.

The best thing was that it gave Fil 'permission' to say no to scammers when they called. He felt ok with just saying to callers "my son/DiL has POA so I can't agree anything but if you call back this afternoon then you can speak to them about it". Funnily enough they never called back and the calls then tailed off to next to nothing. We also cancelled all PiL's bank cards and ordered new ones so that the scam companies couldn't take money without permission and went through S/O & D/D's that we couldn't find paperwork for etc and went to the bank and insisted that they were blocked.

If your DM is willing and able to do a POA now then do it for financial AND medical. With our experiences over the last 4 years, it has proved invaluable and setting one up doesn't mean that you have to use it immediately. We had ours set up fully and ready for 2 years before we had to actively use it.