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cakestabber3 karma

How much of a role do the elderly population's 'trust in institutions play into their likelihood of being scammed? Most of these scammers seem to be impersonating banks and other financial institutions, or the government (IRS especially during tax refund season).

Along similar lines, are people of certain backgrounds more likely to be scammed than others? To put it bluntly, most of the firsthand accounts I've read of scam victims tend to come from elderly whites (who may have an inclination to trust the aforementioned institutions than, say, POCs or younger people).

cakestabber1 karma

Here's something I struggle with (related to the comment from /u/cahaseler): I've forwarded links (from Marketplace and other sources) to my parents / in-laws, and make sure to talk about financial scams on a semi-regular basis. I know they're reading it, and they're engaged in the discussions we've had (in short, they're still mentally sharp).

And yet, about a month ago, FIL falls victim to a tech support scam (thankfully he didn't lose anything because we had a scheduled phone call, and I told him to pull the plug (literally) - the scammer was using a GoToMeeting type tool to root around his computer).

In short, you can be doing the right things, and some scammers still succeed in spite of that.

Beyond talking, and making sure they are aware that scams do happen, is there anything else more direct that one can do to look after our elderly relatives' affairs, other than filing a power-of-attorney for them?