The scams that target older people, and how to spot them early

Scammers target older people deliberately: they're more likely to be home, to answer a landline, to be polite to strangers, and to have savings. And they're less likely to tell anyone afterwards: Action Fraud and Age UK have both long reported that older victims frequently stay silent out of embarrassment, which is exactly what the scam relies on.

You can't take every call for your dad. What you can do is know the current patterns, plant a few tripwires, and make absolutely sure he never feels stupid for telling you.

The patterns doing the rounds

The bank-impersonation call. "There's been fraud on your account. We need to move your money somewhere safe." Real banks never do this. This one works because it's frightening and urgent, and urgency is the whole trick.

The grandchild emergency. A call or text, "Gran, it's me, I'm in trouble, please don't tell Mum", asking for money fast. Increasingly convincing; agree a family code word now, while it's a game and not a crisis.

The doorstep trades. The "water board" needing to come in, the roofer who's "noticed something dangerous" and can fix it today for cash. Legitimate utilities carry ID and are happy to wait while someone rings to check.

Prize, parcel and refund messages. You've won, you've missed a delivery, you're owed a refund: click here. The link is the scam.

The slow romance or friendship scam. The cruellest, because it targets loneliness itself: weeks of warmth first, money requests later. A parent with company is measurably harder to reach this way.

The early signs someone's being targeted

New "friends" who only exist on the phone. Vagueness about money. Unusual cash withdrawals. A sudden reluctance to let you answer the landline. Or the small mention, "a nice man rang from the bank", dropped into conversation weeks before any money moves. The mentions almost always come first. The question is whether anyone's there to hear them.

Protecting without taking over

Blanket control ("I'll just manage your money, Dad") humiliates, and it gets resisted. What works: agree the code word; put the bank's real number on a card by the phone with "ring THIS number, no other"; enable their bank's confirmation-of-payee and account alerts with them, not for them; and rehearse one sentence until it's a reflex, "I never decide anything on the phone. Ring back tomorrow." Scammers need today. Tomorrow kills them.

And build in daily conversation. This is the honest place our service fits: a DailyChinwag companion chats with them as often as every day, and it's trained for precisely that "nice man from the bank" moment: the family hears about it the same day, in their exact words, while it's still a story rather than a police report. How the safeguarding works is public.

If money has already gone: no blame, ring the bank first, then report it to Report Fraud (reportfraud.police.uk / 0300 123 2040): the national service that replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. The phone number is the same one as before. Banks recover more than people expect when told quickly, and quickly only happens when telling you feels safe.

---