How to talk to older people in your life about scams
Last year, consumers lost $8.8 billion to scammers, and the Federal Trade Commission says older adults lost the most money compared to other age groups
NEW YORK — This summer, Daniel Goldstein’s 86-year-old mom got an email that looked like it was from her bank. She was alarmed because she hadn’t spent the money it mentioned, so she called a help number on the email. The person on the other end of the line asked for her bank account information and made her believe she would get her money back. Instead, she lost $600 to a scammer.
Last year, consumers of all ages were scammed out of $8.8 billion. And older adults lost the most money compared to other age groups, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
While everyone wants to protect their parents and grandparents from scammers, sometimes these conversations can be complicated to navigate.
“We encourage people to think in multigenerational approaches. Everyone is getting scammed, it’s just a different way that scammers go after you,” said Genevieve Waterman from the National Council on Aging.
From having a lot of empathy to knowing how to report a scam, experts shared their recommendations for talking about scams:
KNOW WHICH SCAMS COMMONLY TARGET OLDER PEOPLE
Knowing which scams are most commonly used to target older people can help.
Two of the most common are the “grandparent” scam and romance scams, said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention at AARP.
The grandparent scam is when someone gets a phone call from a person impersonating a grandchild and asking for money to get them out of trouble. The first step to avoid this is to call other family members before taking any action, the FTC recommends.
When it comes to romance scams, the FTC reported that
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