Elderly DGP being susceptible to online and telephone scams

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Wondering if anyone has any advice or words or wisdom..

My DGP lives alone and in her old age is becoming increasingly vulnerable to scammers and chancers and I am at a loss as to what to do to prevent further incidents.

We don't live nearby and do our best to visit as often as possible. She can manage life on her own just fine in the sense she is fit and able just easily taken in by a phone call.

We have access to her bank accounts and emails. The most recent example we found out about money being taken from her was via a confirmation email that alluded to a previous phone call. And of course we can't monitor all her phone calls. By the time we got the email the money is taken.

The issue is that some of these companies are legitimate but they are clearly preying on vulnerable people. This most recent company had already convinced her to sign up for a years service back in January. We dealt with it then. Cancelled. No refund though. Then today they have rung her and re convinced her to pay again for a year! It's so morally wrong. We will be attempting to cancel money paid under the 14 day rule.

I just don't know what to do to stop this. Then afterwards she feels upset and stupid which I hate. And we try to talk to her each time about saying no and hanging up etc and she listens but then it's like she forgets or is scared or taken in or something when it's happening.

I also hate to think of this happening to others.

I'm sort of just having a good old rant but any advice much appreciated!

I feel your pain, my dgp lost £20k this way.

We've set up his current account to only hold a minimum amount of money now but it's so hard - we can't monitor all calls/post. He already has a TPS listing and needs his phone.

I had the same problem with MIL, I changed her phone number and redirected her post to my house.

BT sell phones which intercept numbers which aren’t on a preapproved list. My parents and in laws have them and they’ve not had a single scam call since as the unknown caller has to announce their name before they get through to you and most don’t want to or can’t be bothered.

Can she block all calls from unknown numbers? Is there anyone who would legitimately call her whose number she wouldn't have in the phone's address book? You can get phones that do all sorts of clever things now, my parents have some with this Virtual Assistant on.

An alternative would be for some kind of VOIP service where you could access the voicemails - like Vonage where the voicemails are emailed to you. She'd have to agree not to answer the phone to unknown numbers (or you could set them up to divert straight to voicemail) and then you'd listen to the voicemail for her.

My dads been scammed a couple of times now over the phone, plus some close calls. He hates it, but they are so clever at persuading the elderly

It's so awful isn't it. Sympathies to those of you with similar stories.

Thanks for the links tribpot. She's with sky but I think they so something similar from what I've been reading online tonight.

The Vonage thing I will have to look at in more detail as it looks like it would make me more responsible for her calls and I don't necessarily want to take that independence away from her?

She uses the phone a fair amount for friends family and social things so it's been impossible to convince her to not answer unknown numbers. Though we always tell her that anyone with anything important to say would leave a message. For the same reasons I'm not really wanting to change her number as I don't think she would remember a new one after decades of her existing one.

It's so frustrating that these companies just use different numbers each time so even when you block one number they just use another extension etc.

I also have been looking to find a way to report specific companies but so far I think it's not actual fraud/a crime as such so fraud action wouldn't be appropriate? Thinking of reporting to trading/consumer standards? Not sure if there is anyone else who takes reports of these companies? Hard when it's technically legitimate but morally dubious!

It's awful the way these organisations behave, if you can redirect the mail then do it and also what another pp mentioned about having only approved numbers ringing will make a huge difference.

My grandma lived alone down south during my childhood and when we went to clear her apartment out after she died there was hundreds!! Of letters on the floor from legitimate charities begging for money for dying children (naming the child, age, life story) villages/hospitals etc. They'd even attach things like baby booties to the letters. It's bloody disgusting, she probably gave them money once and then they did not leave her alone. Every day we were there we got at least 20 charity letters. Another issue was religious letters for religious charities/churches which would contain Jesus on a crucifix/cross necklaces. My grandma would of felt obliged to give money after she received a 'gift' and a crappy bible paragraph! I think the charities must pass on the numbers to others. It made me so angry that she'd been hounded for god knows how long.

BT Advanced Cordless Home Phone with 100% Nuisance Call Blocking and Answering Machine, Quad Handset Pack www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0787N6748/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_l7AXAbNMHJGYV?tag=mumsnetforum-21

This is what my parents have. You’ll need to set them up but they are so good at blocking calls you honestly won’t belive the difference it makes.

Also agree with a device based solution. My elderly parents have a ‘True Call’ box. You can get them on Amazon. Has revolutionised their lives and seemingly got them off the ‘potential suckers’ lists. Not to mention the annoyance at being interrupted at their age.

Unfortunately my dad is massively confused by the call blocking phone, and can't add people to the allowed callers so I had to take it back. I love the system though!

Opted for the included caller filter with existing package and hoping that might filter out some of the worst. She enjoyed practising it with me.. reminded her of the telephone exchange and having to accept the call from the exchange before being connected to the caller. Thanks all for your suggestions for this. Hopefully we can continue to keep an eye on things and good luck to all of us trying to prevent these horrible chancers taking advantage of our loved ones.

New here but popping on coz unfortunately my elderly mother nearly fell foul to one of these telephone scams yesterday. Luckily for once she thought to ring me as she was so panicked.

Basically a man rang her and said that he had a cheque for her for £3,600 and he was sending another man round to the house in two hours with it. All she needed to do was to give him a £200 paysafe voucher. She was understandably frightened. If i am honest it shook me up too...i reported it to the police and they were very good but have said it is likely to happen again 😔

Sorry for the long story but we are now looking at options to try and help avoid her getting into these situations.