Stay Scam Aware

At any time, any of us could fall victim to a scam. However, sadly the people who tend to be easy targets for fraudsters are ageing adults.

Older adults are particularly vulnerable for many reasons, including:

• Decline in cognitive function: conditions like dementia can lead people to make poor decisions.
• Loneliness: older people that don’t have as much social interaction are prone to being taken advantage of. Somebody can befriend them for no reason but to take money from them.
• Financial stability: many older people have years’ worth of savings in the bank.
• Cash: older people are more likely to have cash on them or at home.
• Less tech savvy: navigating the online world is often something that the older generation are not confident doing, and are less likely to spot anything suspicious online.

The impacts of being targeted by fraudsters can hit older people the hardest, with the key implications being:

• Emotional distress: it causes huge upset knowing you’ve had money stolen from you, and not knowing whether you’ll be able to get it back.
• Loss of trust in other people: particularly if the scam began with somebody befriending you, how can you know whether a new person you meet is genuine?
• Inability to recover financially: particularly if you’re on a tight budget, having money stolen from you can be financially devastating.
• Poor self-esteem: it impacts on your feeling of self-worth knowing that you’ve been targeted by a fraudster.
• Loss of independence: Being scammed might make you feel like you should give up certain responsibilities or leave them to someone else to handle. To some, that feels like losing part of their identity.

Home Instead are champions of scam prevention

For 10 years, Home Instead has been championing scam and fraud prevention. As a partner of UK Finance, we have developed a scam prevention initiative in collaboration with its campaign ‘Take Five’. This offers advice on how to prevent becoming victim to email, phone-based and online fraud. The message is ‘Stop, Challenge, Protect’ to encourage people to consider whether they’re being targeted by a fraudster if they come across anything suspicious.

We’re proud to see many of our Care Professionals supporting their clients and preventing them from falling victim to a scam or supporting them in reporting it. A scam isn’t just about having money stolen from you; it can have a huge knock-on effect.

The information below is based on UK Finance’s Take 5, an official campaign recognised as the go-to advice on scam prevention. Use this to educate your RPN network.