How to protect your parents from financial scams

Protect the elders in your life from scams with a few simple steps. — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/young-woman-helping-senior-man-with-payment-on-internet-using-laptop-3823488/

When a scam artist called Cameron Huddleston’s mom to tell her to wire money in order to claim a prize, Huddleston had to intercept the calls. Her mom, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, was convinced she had to wire the money as soon as possible.

“That was a wake-up call for me. If you have any cognitive decline, you don’t see those red flags anymore,” says Huddleston, who lives in Kentucky and is the director of education at Carefull, a service built to protect aging adults’ daily finances. She also wrote the book Mom And Dad, We Need To Talk, on how to have important conversations about money with your parents.