I think this is important, particularly because our AD spouses can easily be scammed and tricked. This is a long story, which I will try to make as concise as possible.
My step-mother, who has a brain tumor that is causing dementia-like symptoms, got a call this afternoon. As soon as she said hello, a male voice said - "Grandma? Grandma? I'm in trouble and need money right away". She had a choice of 3 grandsons, and she picked Joel. She said - "Joel, is this Joel?" The person said yes, and proceeded to tell her that he needed money, not to tell his mother (me), and to send $2800 to an address in Canada. She was frantic, called a cab, and raced out to Walmart to send a money gram. It took my step brother forever to track her down and stop her, then had to explain the scam to her.
I honestly don't know how to stop these scam artists, but it is something to be aware of, as those with dementia are especially vulnerable to these types of scams.
Put a lock on phone as on mailboxes? Remove land lines and only use cell phone? What if they can use a phone in emergency? Forget that and use one of the "alert" programs? My hsbd has been talked into buying stuff: on-line classes, multi-level sales, etc. Hasn't answered a call as described, but it could happen eventually, I guess. And I've had to get us out of more than one "situation." One more thing to worry about.
I used to worry about the telemarketers when dh could still use the phone because he was so gullible. Now, he usually can't answer the phone. If he could, I think I would consider having an extra cell phone and remove the land line. You can get an extra cell phone on a family plan for $10.00 but it would be a different phone number. My friend's DH in early AD gave a fellow Church Member $2500. recently when she was having a financial difficulty and begging friends for money, but that was by personal contact.
A friend of ours in this retirement complex fell for a scam like the above and actually sent $2,500 to someone in Canada, only to find out that her grandson was in Brazil. And she does not have dementia. So it can happen to anyone.
I heard that the criminals get this info from obituaries! that contain a lot of personal info and names of relatives and where they are from..yipes. scamming from a death. unreal! but makes you think bout running that kind of info in public avenues.once its in the papers its online thru the same newspapers. Divvi
When this happened in WA state a few months ago someone, supposedly a teenagers friend, called Grandparents asking for the money to get their Grandson out of trouble (Canadian custody). Said his friend was very afraid to tell his parents and that is why the Grandparents were being called.
My DH got scammed out of his Van and whole lot of other things. None of them cheap. And those were supposed to be friends of his. Well they disappeared and no one knows where they moved too. This happened when I was still working. They came while I was at work and talked him out of it. When I came home and found out I called a Police friend of ours. He said that this was the lowest of the low. The police tried to find them but to no avail. My DH also started to buy a garage door opener, when he realized that he couldn't install it anymore like he used to, he called for it to be installed. Well in the meantime he had lost a whole bunch of parts and they could not install it. Then he went and bought another one, same thing happened. The third time the salesman told him they are going to keep the garage door opener and give it to the installer before he came to the house. Thank God for the sales man. So now I will have two garage door openers with parts missing for my summer yard sale.LOL I also heard about the scam with the supposedly grandson calling. This is just terrible what people will do.
Some articles I have seen on "elderly" scams felt that "older" folks were brought up to be more polite, and were therefore more likely to open a door to a stranger with a sob story or listen to the whole sales pitch over the phone without hanging up on them. "Younger" folks are more likely to be suspicious, say no, and hang up in the same situation. Thinking about some older folks I know, I can see case where this would be true and cases where it wouldn't be.
I think too, older people are lonely for someone to talk to and they feel useful that someone would want to talk with them, ask their opinion, etc. They have plenty time on their hands.