Scams
Older people are increasingly the target for criminal activity. How can we help?
Pension fraud is on the rise. How do we protect our family?
Criminals are increasingly targeting older people and those approaching retirement to steal their life savings. Action Fraud in the UK has reported a shocking £17.5 million lost to pension scams in 2024 alone — that’s around £48,000 stolen every single day. On average, victims lost £33,848 each. To help keep your older relatives and friends […]
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How can we help our seniors avoid the worst of today’s scammers?
Scamming older people out of their precious pensions is nothing new. Some 20 years ago my father, who has never used a computer, was being taken in by rogues knocking on his door and suggesting he needed expensive work done on his house. Sadly, the arrival of the internet brought new levels of opportunity to […]
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Top 10 searched queries about scam calls answered
Collaborative Post Repeatedly getting calls from numbers you don’t recognise is frustrating. Often, they’re nuisance calls from cold callers trying to sell you something you don’t want, but they can also be potentially dangerous. Scam calls can allow criminals access to your personal information, which they’ll then use to commit fraud or scam you out […]
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How to avoid garage scams
Collaborative Post Do you sometimes feel intimidated taking your car to the garage? This is a common issue that many motorists have as they often fear that they will be scammed or taken advantage of due to their lack of knowledge about cars. While most garages are friendly and reliable, you will find that there […]
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Latest scams, pushy callers and other threats to vulnerable people
While not wanting this to be a depressing read, we do want to highlight the latest ways that nefarious people are trying to relieve people – especially older people – of their money and goods. The car park ticket robbery. This has been happening a lot around here, again and again in the same car […]
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Latest on phishing scams and other tales of dastardly behaviour
No apologies for returning to the subject of scams yet again for an update. The sort of good news is, contrary to popular belief, that older people are not necessarily the most vulnerable when it comes to phishing and its relations. This is simply because many of the most senior members of the population don’t […]
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The ultimate guide to avoiding online fraud in 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has given us the opportunity and challenge of introducing older family members to the pleasures and pitfalls of the internet. But avoiding the predators is a long-term task. And it won’t be an easy one for anyone who isn’t constantly up-to-date and alert to the latest attempts to steal their data and […]
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Coronavirus crisis creates new ways to scam older people
While ‘traditional’ crimes such as burglary seemed to be on the wane during the lockdown, there’s been no rest for the scammers. New attempts to relieve the population of their cash include: Fake NHS Test and Trace messages, asking people to call a premium rate number, make a purchase, provide social media log-ins, hand over […]
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Protecting older people from tax scams
Today’s scammers try to take on any persona possible to relieve the vulnerable of the contents of the bank accounts, or even their savings and investments. A particular favourite at the moment seems to be fake messages from the tax office, demanding payments or even offering to help with refunds from HMRC. What sort of […]
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Banking scams, refunds and protecting the vulnerable
Financial scammers are ingenious and credible, and they prey on the vulnerable. That makes older people particularly susceptible. A new scheme should help to combat this form of fraud. Older people tend to be more trusting, and less informed about the methods that criminals will use to relieve them of their savings. And it is […]
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