Senior Consumer Safety Tips
Protecting against con artists and their scams targeting seniors

Consumers of all ages must protect themselves from con artists, but seniors are unfortunately the target of many of their schemes. They may try to approach their targets by phone, mail, and internet or in person. Many con artists, especially fraudulent telemarketers and phony home improvement contractors, approach the elderly because many of them are retired and often at home, easily reachable by telephone or by just ringing the doorbell. Knowledge is power. If you know what to look out for, you can avoid losing your hard-earned money to these scam artists.

According to the website, stopseniorscams.org, five things to evaluate when you think you are being deceived are:

• If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• When it comes to a “now or never” opportunity, choose “never.”
• Keep account numbers, codes and passwords private.
• Shred all bills, receipts and junk mail when finished with them.
• If you feel uncomfortable with an experience involving money investments, seek out advice by telling someone.

Some of the most common cons used on the elderly are:

• Door-to-door contractors with home improvement offers who either run off with the money before working or who do the work but fix things that don’t need fixing.
• Sweepstakes that require the "winner" to pay something first.
• The selling of Medicare drug discount cards directly or other health-related scams.
• Identity theft.
• Internet and mail scams originating in a foreign country asking the victim to help the swindler transfer large sums of money through their own bank account.
• Telemarketers who call and ask for donations for questionable causes, or offer ”get-rich-quick schemes," or ask for personal information such as credit card numbers or social security numbers.
• Unscrupulous lenders who target elderly homeowners who own homes outright, often adding high processing fees and interest rates to an unwarranted loan.
  Some things that can be implemented by family or interested parties to prevent the duping of the elderly include:
• Use the scam prevention worksheet on the American Association of Retired Persons website to help measure whether telemarketers are legitimate or not.
• Get them listed on the federal government's Do-Not-Call list.
• Contact the Direct Marketing Association to have their names removed from mailing lists.
• Advise them not to give out personal information.
• Help them shred documents that include key financial or personal information.
• Ask them to wait a few days to make decisions involving finances, and suggest that they involve another person in the decision-making process.
• Report scams to the authorities.
• Monitor financial statements.