October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Sadly, it got off to a bit of a rough start for my family.
My widowed mother was convinced by a Facebook ad to pay for a supposed memory-boosting supplement.
The supplement doesn’t exist.
It’s done a number on my mom’s confidence. And understandably so. When you get scammed, you can feel like the foundations of your financial life are crumbling, like an old building that once seemed solid but is now falling into disrepair.
What happens next?
Unfortunately, with a scam like this, the credit card company can’t do a lot. They can watch for future unusual charges, but when you willingly enter your card information, you’re essentially giving someone money.
The sad truth—you don’t have a lot of recourse when you get scammed.
This is what scammers count on. There’s a huge industry based on this—phishing, deepfake messages, romance scams, etc. They want to take advantage of strong emotions: fear, panic, loneliness, anxiety. Anything to make someone think it’s urgent to buy something NOW.
And let’s face it: who wouldn’t be tempted by an ad offering a solution for a problem that just started to grip your mind and stoke your anxiety?
However, education matters, and prompt action can make a difference.
Please take the time to reach out to your older relatives—and chat with your teens and young children as well. Discuss the red flags of scams. Learn about cybersecurity best practices—I am lucky enough to work with OnPoint Community Credit Union, and they provide a lot of excellent cybersecurity resources that I will personally vouch for.
Set up any safeguards you can with your financial institutions—transaction alerts, transaction limits, etc. Figure out how to become an authorized user or file a power of attorney.
Older people are particularly vulnerable to scams. Scammers target them for two reasons:
- Seniors might have a large amount of retirement savings
- Seniors might not be fully familiar with online scams and what to watch for
Seniors often feel an unwonted sense of shame or embarrassment when it happens. This shame will make them hesitate to speak up. And scammers will exploit that hesitancy to try to take the scam further.
Here’s the thing—victims shouldn’t feel ashamed. Scams happen. Scammers devote a lot of resources to making clever, convincing scams. This is truly a profession, taking advantage of modern resources.
Your parent isn’t the first to be fooled, and they won’t be the last.
If your parent gets scammed?
- Contact their financial institution as soon as you can.
- Change the card or account number—my mom was worried about the recent charges that she did authorize, so I needed to explain that there’s a key difference between a line of credit/account and an account/card number. Fraud happens—fortunately, we’re not about to run out of account numbers!
- Check with the financial institution about available restrictions that can be placed on certain transactions.
- Look into getting lists of recurring transactions to make it easier to update payment information with legitimate businesses.
Elder fraud is cruel. If you see any signs of elder abuse, there are resources that can help. Start by chatting with your parents’ bank or credit union. Let them know if you have concerns. Paying attention and taking corrective action will make a real difference.
Writing At 1 AM 