Protect your elderly parents from common financial scams

It often starts with something ordinary on the kitchen table: a letter that looks like it came from Medicare, a bank notice your father does not want to open, a voicemail saying there is a problem with an account, or a pop-up on the computer warning that everything is at risk. Your parent may still be handling daily life well. They may drive, cook, repair a loose handrail, and insist they do not need help. Then one official-sounding message makes them hesitate.

That hesitation is the moment to take seriously. Common financial scams targeting seniors are designed to turn confusion, fear, loneliness, or trust into a fast payment decision. Protecting elderly parents does not have to mean taking over their finances. The safer starting point is to learn the patterns, agree on a pause rule, and put a few protections in place before a caller, message, or fake alert creates an emergency.

Quick Answers

This article is informational only and is not financial or legal advice. If decisions involve power of attorney, guardianship, estate planning, or disputed account access, talk with a qualified elder law attorney or financial professional.

Why This Deserves More Than a Vague “Be Careful”

The national numbers are large, but they need to be read carefully. The FTC reported that older adults’ fraud losses rose from $600 million in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2024, with investment scams, romance scams, and impersonation scams driving much of the increase.[1] The FBI reported $3.4 billion in losses from more than 101,000 victims age 60 and older in 2023, with an average reported loss of $33,915 per victim.[2]

Those figures are not interchangeable. FTC and FBI reports draw from different systems, years, and reporting channels. Schwab, writing for families about fraud prevention, also cites a much higher $7.7 billion loss figure from the FBI’s 2025 IC3 report, but that number is presented second-hand in Schwab’s article rather than as the primary report itself.[3] The practical conclusion is still narrow and clear: every credible source points to serious risk, and reported losses almost certainly miss many cases because embarrassment and family conflict keep some scams hidden.

The better question at home is not whether your parent is “gullible.” It is whether the household has a routine for slowing down a convincing request before money leaves the account.

The Four Red Flags That Keep Reappearing

The FTC’s scam guidance is useful because it gives families plain language. Across many scams, the agency says fraudsters often use four signals: they pretend to be from an organization you know, say there is a problem or a prize, pressure you to act immediately, and tell you to pay in a specific way.[4]

• Imposter claim: “I’m from your bank,” “I’m with Medicare,” “This is Social Security,” or “I’m calling from tech support.”
• Problem-or-prize hook: “Your account is compromised,” “You owe money,” “Your computer is infected,” or “You won something.”
• Urgency pressure: “Do this now,” “Do not hang up,” “Do not tell anyone,” or “You will be arrested.”
• Demanded payment method: gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency, payment apps, cash pickups, or other methods that are hard to reverse.

A parent does not have to memorize every scam name. If a message has even two of these red flags, the family rule should be simple: stop, hang up or close the message, and call back using a number from a statement, card, or official website.

Five Scam Patterns To Recognize

Grandparent or Person-in-Need Scams

The caller says a grandchild, niece, nephew, friend, or other loved one is in trouble. There has been an accident. Someone is in jail. A lawyer or police officer is involved. Money is needed right away, and the parent is told not to tell anyone because the situation is embarrassing or dangerous.

The National Council on Aging includes grandparent scams among the top financial scams targeting older adults, and the pattern is easy to miss because it uses love instead of greed.[5] The safe response is not to argue about whether the story sounds possible. It is to verify through a second channel. Call the grandchild’s usual number. Call a parent, sibling, or trusted family contact. If the caller says secrecy is required, treat that as part of the scam.

Tech Support Scams

Tech support scams often begin with a pop-up, email, text, or phone call claiming a computer, phone, or account has been compromised. The scammer may ask the older adult to install remote-access software, provide a code, move money to a “safe” account, or pay for fake repairs.

The FBI reported that tech support scams were the most widely reported scam type among older victims in its 2023 elder fraud data, with about 18,000 victims age 60 and older.[2] The key household rule is that no one who contacts your parent unexpectedly gets remote access to a device. If a warning appears on screen, your parent can take a photo of it with a phone, shut the device if possible, and call a known family contact or a local repair provider they already use.

Government Impersonation Scams

Government impersonation scams feel especially plausible because they borrow the language of agencies, benefits, taxes, law enforcement, and identity protection. A message may look like a security warning. A caller may say an account is frozen, a Social Security number is involved in a crime, Medicare coverage will be affected, or a warrant exists unless payment is made.

The FTC’s 2025 Data Spotlight on “false alarm” scams found that among older adults, losses of $10,000 or more to government impersonation scams involving fake security alerts increased more than fourfold from 2020 to 2024, while losses of $100,000 or more increased nearly sevenfold.[4] That does not mean every official-looking warning is fake. It means the safest response is never to use the phone number, link, QR code, or payment instruction inside the alarming message.

A practical script helps here: “Dad, real agencies do not need you to prove yourself by buying gift cards, moving money, or staying on the phone. Let’s put the letter aside and call the number printed on your actual card or on the agency’s official website.” The tone matters. The goal is to make pausing feel like a normal household procedure, not a test of competence.

Investment and Crypto Scams

Investment scams may promise unusually high returns, low risk, guaranteed income, special access, or a short window to get in. Crypto adds another layer because money can move quickly, terminology can sound technical, and recovery is often difficult once funds are transferred.

In the FBI’s 2023 elder fraud reporting, investment scams were the costliest category for older victims, with $1.2 billion in losses.[2] The family protection here is a waiting period, not a lecture about markets. Agree that any new investment, crypto transfer, private loan, or “safe account” movement waits at least a day and gets reviewed using an independently found phone number or a known advisor.

Romance Scams

Romance scams build slowly. The person may appear through a dating app, social media message, online game, or wrong-number text. They offer attention, affection, and steady contact, then introduce a crisis: travel costs, medical bills, frozen funds, a business problem, or an investment opportunity.

The FTC’s older adult fraud report identifies romance scams as one of the drivers of the rise in reported losses from 2020 to 2024.[1] For adult children, this is one of the hardest patterns to address because the scam may be filling a real loneliness gap. A safer conversation is not “You’re being fooled.” It is “Anyone who cares about you can wait while we verify a money request.”

Protect Today: Steps That Do Not Require Taking Over

The strongest protection plan is boring on purpose. It lowers the chance that one frightening call can become an irreversible payment. Sit with your parent, explain each step, and make the setup something you do together.

Freeze Credit at the Three Major Credit Bureaus

A credit freeze restricts access to a credit report, which can make it harder for someone to open new credit in your parent’s name. Schwab recommends freezing credit as one fraud-prevention step families can discuss with aging parents.[3] A freeze does not stop every scam; it will not undo a wire transfer or block someone from persuading a parent to send gift cards. But it can reduce damage if personal information is exposed.

Do this with your parent present. Use the official websites for Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Store the login information or PINs wherever your parent keeps other important records, not in a random notebook that will disappear when someone needs it.

Add Trusted Contacts to Financial Accounts

A trusted contact is not the same as joint ownership. It generally gives a financial institution someone to contact if they suspect exploitation, cannot reach the account holder, or notice concerning activity. The CFPB highlights trusted contacts as one tool for protecting older adults from fraud, and Schwab also recommends that families consider adding trusted contacts at financial institutions.[6][3]

Ask your parent whom they would want called if a bank or brokerage sees something unusual. It may be you, a sibling, a longtime friend, or more than one person. This is a useful place to respect autonomy: the contact should be someone your parent trusts, not simply the most forceful person in the family.

Turn On Account Alerts

Many banks and credit card companies allow alerts for large purchases, online transactions, low balances, new payees, address changes, and password changes. Schwab includes alerts among practical ways adult children can help parents reduce fraud risk.[3]

The cleanest setup is one your parent can understand: alerts go to them, and if they choose, duplicate alerts can go to a trusted family member. Avoid building a secret surveillance system. If your parent discovers hidden monitoring later, the trust you need during a real scam may already be damaged.

Create a Pause-and-Call-Back Rule

This is the single household rule worth repeating out loud: no urgent money request gets handled during the first call, text, email, pop-up, or letter. Your parent does not have to decide whether the message is real while they are frightened.

• If it is supposedly the bank, call the number on the back of the card or on a recent statement.
• If it is supposedly Medicare, Social Security, the IRS, or law enforcement, look up the official contact route separately.
• If it is supposedly a relative in trouble, call that person or another family member using a known number.
• If someone says not to tell family, treat that as a reason to tell family.

Reduce Risky Mail

Mail still matters. Scam mailers can mimic government benefits, insurance notices, sweepstakes, charity appeals, or urgent account warnings. A locked mailbox, prompt mail pickup, and shredding old statements or medical-benefit papers can reduce both fraud risk and identity-theft exposure.

If your parent is comfortable with it, sign up for postal delivery previews, move sensitive statements online, or have duplicate notices sent to a trusted helper. If they are not comfortable, start smaller: set one weekly time to sit together and sort mail into keep, verify, shred, and discuss piles.

Secure Key Documents

Fraud prevention is harder when no one can find the Social Security card, insurance information, account list, will, power of attorney, or tax records. Keep originals in a secure place, keep a simple inventory, and make sure your parent knows who can access what in an emergency.

Do not treat document safekeeping as permission to take every paper out of the house. A parent who feels raided may stop showing you mail. A better approach is to ask, “If there were a problem, where would you want me to look first?”

Block and Screen Calls

Call blocking will not stop every scam, but it can reduce the number of attempts that reach your parent when they are tired, alone, or distracted. Use carrier tools, smartphone silence settings, spam filters, and a habit of letting unknown numbers go to voicemail. The FDIC’s consumer guidance for older adults also emphasizes being cautious with unexpected calls, texts, emails, and payment requests.[7]

For a parent who relies on the phone, do not make the device unusable in the name of safety. Keep favorite contacts easy to reach. Put key family members on speed dial. If voicemail is confusing, simplify the greeting and check together periodically.

If Money or Information May Already Be Gone

Speed matters after a suspected scam, but shame makes people hide details. Start with containment, not blame. Say, “We are going to try to stop more damage. I need the timeline, not a perfect explanation.”

1. Call the bank, credit card company, brokerage, payment app, or wire service using a verified number and ask whether the payment can be stopped, reversed, frozen, or disputed.
2. Save evidence: texts, emails, voicemails, caller IDs, receipts, wallet addresses, gift card numbers, envelopes, and screenshots.
3. Change passwords for affected email, bank, phone, and shopping accounts, especially if a scammer got remote access or a verification code.
4. Freeze credit and consider fraud alerts if personal information, Social Security numbers, or identity documents were shared.
5. Report the incident to the appropriate channels, such as the FTC, FBI IC3, local law enforcement, the financial institution, or Adult Protective Services if exploitation or coercion is involved.

Recovery companies that promise to get money back can become a second scam. Be especially careful if someone contacts your parent after the first incident and says they can recover the funds for an upfront fee.

When Memory Problems Change the Plan

A parent with mild forgetfulness may do well with reminders, call-back rules, and visible notes near the phone or computer. A parent with dementia, worsening judgment, or repeated scam exposure may need stronger support than a checklist can provide. If your family is seeing broader financial changes, missed bills, unusual purchases, or confusion around basic documents, CareWise’s guidance on the hidden financial toll of dementia and late-stage dementia care may be more relevant than standard scam prevention alone.

That is also the point to discuss legal authority before a crisis forces the issue. Trusted contacts, powers of attorney, joint access, guardianship, and estate planning are different tools with different consequences. Get professional advice before changing ownership or control of accounts.

A Safer Household Routine

Adult children cannot remove every scam attempt from a parent’s life. They also cannot preserve trust by turning every phone call, letter, and online friendship into an interrogation. The workable middle ground is procedural: know the common scam patterns, watch for the four red flags, and set up protections that make fraud harder to complete.

A credit freeze, trusted contact, alert system, safer mail routine, document plan, and call-back rule will not make your parent invulnerable. They can, however, buy the time that scams are designed to steal.

References

1. FTC Issues Annual Report to Congress on Agency’s Actions to Protect Older Adults, Federal Trade Commission, December 2025.
2. Elder Fraud in Focus, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
3. 5 Ideas to Help Your Parents Avoid Financial Fraud, Schwab.
4. False alarm, real scam: how scammers are stealing older adults’ life savings, Federal Trade Commission, August 2025.
5. Top 5 Financial Scams Targeting Seniors, National Council on Aging.
6. Protecting Older Adults from Fraud, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
7. Scams Targeting Older Adults, FDIC Consumer News, July 2025.