GP could be vulnerable to scams

[Echobelly]

So since my grandfather died, step grandmother (late 80s) living alone, with quite a lot of support her from her daughter. She's definitely in early stages of dementia- poor memory, occasional confusion etc.

My granddad left her large sums of money anticipating her care needs, and I do worry she'll be vulnerable to phone scammers who get details or cards off people - even if she's warned, she might forget.

I'll talk to her daughter about it, I shouldn't be surprised if they've made arrangements to safeguard most of the money so the details might not be accessible to her mum and/or most of it is not stashed in an account with a card, but I'd like to check.

Does anyone know of any good ways of protecting SGM from potential scammers? Is there anything out there like some kind of system that registers with a bank that an account holder might be vulnerable and therefore might quickly flag up changing spending patterns etc?

There's a guy on twitter who is called Tony Murray @citypolicetell2
His feed is very helpful. If you have Twitter, I'm sure he'd only be too willing to help you and his posts are often very informative and helpful x

Does anyone hold financial power of attourney for her? Worth getting in place.
And perhaps having one day to day account without too much money in it.

Social worker here.

A few of my clients had this concern and have had their bank cards made so they can only use them to get cash out and pay at the shop but not to do transactions over the phone.

This stops the callers getting money there and then.

i have a landline which has a call monitoring system on it.
it cost about £50 for 2 handsets/chargers, and I have found it very useful.
think it's "Call Guardian", from BT.

I got the idea from a friend of mine who installed it for his elderly mum. now a neighbour and my cousin have it after seeing mine.
it cuts out annoying scam/ marketing etc calls.
you put in the people you want to always accept in the address book. or you can just add them to the accept-list when they ring.
all the others, it intercepts and they have to say who they are/ what they want which you then hear and can choose to accept, on this occasion only or always, or to reject, or to send to answerphone, or to always block.
I haven't described it very well, but everyone I know who has used it likes it, buys one.
it helps you take back the control.
people who are stuck at home a lot can feel quite got at, intimidated, by pushy callers.
this is also why some people do not answer the door. it surprises me some people on here are surprised that some do not answer the door. lucky for you. you must feel very confident. what about hucksters, burglars by artifice /distraction, all kinds of fraud, hoodlums, drunks, gypsies ( the naughty ones), etc
I rarely open the door if I am not expecting someone, but I will shout from a window above to tell them not interested, so they don't think the house is unoccupied. they may be doing a reccie, gaining information. it is really quite worrying.
I always wave to the house, as if to a person inside, on getting a cab, or leaving, so people watching think someone else is inside.
I know some of you will scoff at this, but I have had some unpleasant experiences.
never accept traders going door to door for business. if they are any good/ legitimate they would be too busy working to do this.
you need to ensure she never opens the door without the chain on, and then only if expecting someone, as you don't want randoms knowing that an elderly person lives there.
it's so good that you are looking out for her. all the best.

Thanks for the advice all.

She's in flats luckily, so it would be hard for someone to come to the door.

I put most of my money in a high interest account so the current account at most only has about £800 in it. I almost got caught myself by a HMRC call until it got down to the nitty Gritty of them wanting me to pay them. The guy was so convincing rattled off the name and number straight away.I reported it to Fraud. I did tell them I was doing it though so I guess someone was standing waiting for a long time!
It is really scary. Helen Skelton was scammed recently with a TV licence fraud on her computer. She lost £70,000.

I would talk to her daughter and ensure it is safe. Maybe more than one account or like drankthekoolaid suggests makes sense.