Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Tips For Avoiding Elder Fraud

By Diane Anderson


Frauds have been common in different areas and have gone unreported for quite a long time as well. Caregivers and family members to the affected seniors stand in the first line of defense against such instances. They have a role in protecting their seniors to ensure that they enjoy their financial freedom. Here are a few practical measures on how to avoid elder fraud that one should take note.

Acquaint with different aspects that relate to the frauds. It is hard to deal with something which you are not familiar with. Therefore, you need to learn different kinds of scams to be aware of them in case they fall to your elder. Common activities that might affect the seniors include a real estate scam, a health scam, insurance scam, and lottery fraud.

Check in regularly with the elder. A family member or a friend should be aware of every financial transaction made by the senior. You should discuss vital aspects such as commercial emails, financial transactions, bills, and other aspects that the seniors are not familiar with. Making such a decision will give you an insight into the situation and confirm whether it is real or a scam.

Check various measures you can use to acknowledge a fraud. It is hard to identify a fraud about to befall a senior since most of them remain silent about such a situation. Therefore, you need to identify particular changes in them to determine whether they are suffering in silence. Some of the indicators of the scam include a difference in their banking habits, payment of bills, unclear checks and unusual signatures.

Set up their checks and balances. Ensure that your seniors have the right legal documents that enable their family members and friends to help them when in need. These documents include a healthcare proxy, HIPAA release form, and their will. The records `can allow you to cater to their bills whenever they are not in a position to do so.

Seek a different person who can verify their financial transaction. You need an additional person who can prove any transaction made by the senior apart from you or the attorney. Such a decision is crucial since you might fail to be available when needed to verify a specific transaction. Look for someone who is trustworthy and would put the interest of a senior before his or hers.

Make sure that information about the senior is not public. Most scammers get information about their target senior from a public information avenue. You have to do away with such information if it is unreliable in such channels. The most notorious source of information to deal is the source that telemarketers use to reach out to their target clients.

Update yourself with information about frauds. You need to keep updating yourself with information related to such kind of fraud situation since they turn out complex on every single day. There is quite a lot of reliable information you can use on the internet. Besides that, you can get additional information on agencies that offer protection to seniors against such scams.




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