How You Can Protect Your Senior

ID theft is a growing and continual threat and senior citizens are often the target. For those in their golden years, the ramifications for ID theft can be particularly devastating, often resulting in the loss of all their savings. Elder fraud, according to the FBI, is responsible for more than $1.7 billion in losses over a three year period. Here’s a quick look at the common scams targeting seniors and steps you can take to help protect your loved ones:

Common Schemes Targeting Seniors

Because many seniors have accumulated wealth, own property and have investments, they are often the target of ID thieves. Seniors can sometimes fall victim to fraud because they live alone, are dealing with health issues and are more vulnerable to certain schemes.

Investment Fraud

Investment fraud comes in several forms. Whether it’s a pyramid scheme or Ponzi scheme, this type of fraud often involves the promise of big returns on investments with minimal risk.

Telemarketing Schemes

This type of fraud involves the scammer reaching out via phone, email, text or even snail mail and requesting personal information from the victim. They often claim the victim has won a sweepstakes or try to sell a particular item or service.

Tech Support Fraud

This type of fraud has grown exponentially in the last few years as more and more seniors are using technology. The thieves impersonate a tech support or customer service representative and attempt to gain personal information, credit card or bank info. According to experts, there were more than 13,900 victims of this type of fraud in 2021 alone. 

Top Steps to Protect Your Senior

In addition to speaking with your loved one about the various scams, here are steps you can take to help protect them against ID theft: 

Keep Personal Documents in a Secure Location

Encourage your senior to keep their personal documents in a safe location and not to carry them with them.

Do Not Recycle Junk Mail

Credit card offers, vacation advertisements, bank and loan offers usually contain a name and address and this is just enough for a thief to gain access to your senior’s identity. Encourage your senior not to recycle junk mail or to throw it away in the regular trash, dumpster diving is a real threat and can happen anytime.

Shred Unwanted, Unneeded Documents

Shred junk mail, outdated documents and any paperwork that contains personal information like old bank statements, credit card bills, expired insurance paperwork, old receipts, etc. Shredding permanently destroys these items and ensures that they won’t fall into the wrong hands.

All Points Mobile Shredding can help you protect your senior loved ones with secure, onsite shredding at your home or office. Our state-of-the-arts come directly to you and perform the shred as you witness the entire process. We also provide a certificate of destruction for additional peace of mind. Give us a call today or complete the form on this page to get a quick quote and check back here to learn about shred days in your neighborhood.