Phone(3)

MarLee92

My MIL is still living at home (alone ). She has 2 phones, a landline and a cell.  Her children usually call her on her cell, but mil often misplaces it, so they'll call the landline.  She has caller id and has been good about not answering unknown calls.  Recently she has started answering the landline and twice has given charities money. Yes I know, why does she have access to her credit card?  Because they won't take it away from her!!!

Now they're thinking about getting rid of the landline and keeping the cell. At the rate the cell comes up missing I think this is an awful idea. In the future I see her forgetting how to use the cell, where she's used a landline forever and may retain that longer. Anyone have an ideas? Is their a feature we can put on the landline to prevent this? Thank you for your thoughts.

Fairyland

Hi

I took away the cell and hold it myself, and have changed the landline phone provider to something called TeleCalm, it has been a success. There is an app on the cell where I can screen the calls and allow people I recognise to get through. 

It is so much calmer without the continuous barrage of scammers and chuggers bent on ripping my mom off. There are dozens of calls I can see on the app, if I want to look at it, every weekday, mostly Robo scammers.  They can leave a message so if legit (hardly any are!)  I can call them back. It also allows blocking or restricted time on outgoing calls, when the PWD is driving people crazy phoning, lucky for me my mom doesn’t do that. But it’s there if needed.

RobinNicole

Hi 

I too use telecalm and it has helped a great deal.  She uses the same handset / and since she has several we have not run into her losing all. We like the quiet hours and setting limits on repetitive calls.  As mentioned you program who can call in and who she can call out to    For doctors and utilities they have my cell phone number now as I pay all the bills 

 I spent hours cleaning up fraudulent charges ( and some were recurring charges) so ended up getting credit cards replaced.  I left my mom with a closed card so she feels she has one but we encourage cash when she goes out w companion ( who updates me on her spend). 

Good luck on the phone and the journey forward

ebplionis

A couple of thoughts, we went through the same...

1.  After my mother gave a telemarketer her ss number (still not sure how she found it, but she did) we switched to a platform called Ooma.  It has a "white list" function, where the landline will only accept people on a preapproved list.  We've added her doctors and family.  There are occasional hiccups when a new caregiver starts and they haven't been added to the white list, but other than that it has been great!  We no longer worry about all the telemarketers, and I can even check online all the calls that have been blocked.  I had no idea how many people were inundating her up until that point.  It also was a weird setup process, not intuitive, unfortunately, but once established it was great. 

2. We also have an amazon echo show, which we use if for some reason the landline, then the cell fails (usually when the landline or cell hasn't been charged).  We can "drop-in" and appear on the screen, and can connect that way.  It's a little glitchy but great in that last resort effort before we dash over to the house. 

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anniew

Hi. My mom is in Memory Care but still has a landline and cell phone. I don't know how much longer she will be able to manage them, but for now it's her link to the outside world. That being said, I have had to do a lot of things with both phones to keep her as safe as possible from scammers. After I had to do damage control a number of times after she gave money and/or personal information to scammers, I switch her landline to an unpublished number. Only her friends and family know that number. It is an extra $5/month but worth it. Then last year she started calling Directory Assistance several times per month, trying to find the phone numbers of people who are no longer living (but she can't remember that). At $6 per Directory Assistance call, her phone bill was getting quite high. So I added a feature called Dial Lock. Her carrier is Centurylink, and they offer this service for $5/month. Dial Lock prevents the user from making any Directory Assistance calls, Operator Assisted calls, Long Distance calls, and 1-900 calls. You can customize it to allow some long distance calls to be made if you wish. Calls to 911 can still be made.

For her cell phone, there are many parental controls you can put on them to keep your loved one safe. I have probably put every parental control on my mom's that they offer! The only thing she can do on her cell phone is make phone calls and text message select people. Callers not in her address book are blocked. Every week when I visit her I go through the call log, and every now and then an unknown number comes through, so I manually block it. 

My mom loses her cell phone all the time, but because she is on a locked floor, it always shows up eventually (usually in some obscure place in her apartment). She also sometimes forgets how to use it, or even forgets what it looks like and what a cell phone is. So I would agree that keeping your MIL's landline is a good idea for those reasons.