I'm new here . help with telephone scams for my mom with ALZ

dadfisher

Hello and Thank you for this site. I have a long and painful story about my mom who was diagnosed with dementia 2 years ago. So far things have been ok-ish she is up beat happy and still remembers a lot of older memories but short term is no good. she is living with her partner of 20+ years and they are both 81. He is frustrated with her memory loss and being unable to help and he seems to always be in disagreement with what mom says. I understand it is frustrating . I am her 55 year old son living an hour away. I have a P.O.A for her and all medical and financial discissions go through me (for the most part) She rarely leaves the house she doesn't like to go anywhere even for fun things . She goes to the doctors regularly and besides the memory she is in excellent health. I see her at least once a week and we get along great .
What brings me here today is she likes talking on the phone so whoever calls is her new best friend. Her partner says they get a dozen calls a day from people trying to sell her anything from shoe laces to ships, and she tries to buy them But we have deactivated her cards and gave her an old checkbook from an old acct so she has a sense of normalcy but 2 days ago she found the current checkbook and sent an electronic check to a so called "power" Company that called and said she owed them money. luckily I was able to figure it out and threaten to press charges against them for them to return the money. Then today I was notified by the Social Security Admin. that someone was trying to reroute her S.S check to a Different acct.
So any advise or ideas on how to stop these scams and help protect mom ?
Thank you Doug

elhijo

Hello Dadfisher,

I don't know if she has a cell phone or old-fashioned corded phone.

If she has an old-fashioned corded phone, ATT sells a cordless telephone you plug into the line that requires someone to announce themselves. And it comes with a built-in call blocker. The model number is CL84207. If you go to Amazon and type ATT CL84207 it'll pull up. You can also google it to learn more about the phone.

The problem will be that you mom may not know how to use it or forget how to use it so she may call her partner to help her with the phone, every hour or more. It is an option though, runs about $90.

The other simpler option would be to change the number for your mom and put a password on it so she can't just call the company and ask them to change the number back, or anything else strange.

Hope this helps.

simplebender

If the phone is an iphone, like my mom's, I set it to "Do Not Disturb" and only allow calls from those in her contact list.....

good luck.....simplebender.com

Jojo235

RAZ has a RAZ memory cellphone for people with dementia. Only phone calls can be made mad received from the list of contacts that a caregiver loads from an app on their phone. The caregiver can see the full list of calls made and received. I was in the same boat as you and this phone has been a complete game changer. I no longer have to worry about crooks calling her and scams. No one can call her except the contacts that I have loaded.

Kandk85

> @dadfisher said:
> Hello and Thank you for this site. I have a long and painful story about my mom who was diagnosed with dementia 2 years ago. So far things have been ok-ish she is up beat happy and still remembers a lot of older memories but short term is no good. she is living with her partner of 20+ years and they are both 81. He is frustrated with her memory loss and being unable to help and he seems to always be in disagreement with what mom says. I understand it is frustrating . I am her 55 year old son living an hour away. I have a P.O.A for her and all medical and financial discissions go through me (for the most part) She rarely leaves the house she doesn't like to go anywhere even for fun things . She goes to the doctors regularly and besides the memory she is in excellent health. I see her at least once a week and we get along great .
> What brings me here today is she likes talking on the phone so whoever calls is her new best friend. Her partner says they get a dozen calls a day from people trying to sell her anything from shoe laces to ships, and she tries to buy them But we have deactivated her cards and gave her an old checkbook from an old acct so she has a sense of normalcy but 2 days ago she found the current checkbook and sent an electronic check to a so called "power" Company that called and said she owed them money. luckily I was able to figure it out and threaten to press charges against them for them to return the money. Then today I was notified by the Social Security Admin. that someone was trying to reroute her S.S check to a Different acct.
> So any advise or ideas on how to stop these scams and help protect mom ?
> Thank you Doug

Kandk85

Hi Doug, it sounds like you have done a lot of things to protect your mother's assets. The phone scams are crazy! We are all prey for these evil people. My suggestion is to look into some of the cellular companies who offer phone plans for seniors. Consumer Cellular has a Grand Pad that only receives calls from numbers you program in. It can be used for video calls and group calls. Setting up a box or basket for incoming and out-going mail might help. This way you and mom's partner can double check mail before anything gets sent out. Remind them that no phone call that requests money or personal information is legit. If mom's partner is willing, ask "who's calling?" "Who are you talking to?" If she doesn't know, hang up! I work in a doctor's office. I hang up on many calls. I would rather be seemingly "rude" or "non-compliant" than give out sensitive information over the phone. I hope this is helpful.

busymom438

My mom had a similar problem, came very close to losing $10K. Luckily her financial advisor, where she had gone to move money, was very savvy and alerted me. Besides scam calls she used to get a crazy number of "medicare" related calls. She has AT&T and we finally put a call blocker on through their settings. Now only numbers on her contact list make it through (she has a landline). There are still lots of pitfalls, I can't convince her she is not really speaking to Mathew McConaughey or Reba on facebook, or someone who has stolen a miltary profile and calls her sweetheart. The criminals out there are just disgusting. Even without cognitive impairment there are so many risks for fraud. Good luck to you.