Seniors Against Scammers and Other Frauds

Have You Got Somethingto Lose? Be careful - This world has many people more than ready to help you lose it!

Crimes against seniors continue to increase. These crimes come in may different forms: financial, psychological & physical abuse, telephone and computor scam, "construction" firms who go door to door offering cut-rate services. And the last one we'll look at today - sweepstakes & other contests.

Ways of Protecting Yourself

1. Financial abuse is often done by someone in your family or a close friend. Somone who you have given a power of Attorney to. A way of protecting yourself from this is to appoint two people when you set up your power of attorney - then the two of them must report any financial deals done on your behalf to each other!

2. Never allow someone who you are not expecting or do not know to come into your house - speak to them through the door. They may be at your door for legitimate reasons, but they may also be there to rob you!

3. If a salesperson tries to rush you into signing a contract for something, (resurfacing your driveway for instance) or he tells you that the price he is offering RIGHT NOW will never be repeated - just say NO! He's not legitimate!

4. Protect yourself against identity theft by not giving out any of your financial information (bank or credit card numbers for example) on the phone. No honest business will ask for this information unless you have called them to make a purchase.

When making a credit card purchase, do not let the card out of your sight. Crooks can run your card through a pocket-sized card reader before they put it through the store's scanner if you are not looking

5. If you are out working in your yard, keep your doors locked. If you are in the front yard cutting grass, you won't hear of see the crook sneaking into your house through the back door - keep it locked!~

6. Sweepstake scammers deserve a full blog and we will soon have one. Til then be very cautious if someone phones you about you having a prize - there are a lot of questions that you need answers for before you deal with him!