How to cancel anything my husband may have done on a call from a solicitor/scam artist?

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How to cancel anything my husband may have done on a call from a solicitor/scam artist?

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I looked in on my husband through our camera (I was at work) and noticed he was on the phone (he never uses the phone). I turned on the speaker just in time to hear him giving his entire SSN. I started screaming into the microphone for him to stop and hang up the phone. This went on for around 5 min until my friend happened to get home from work and heard me screaming through the intercom. She went in and took the phone from him and told the person she was not to send him anything and to never call again. She hung up on the lady, and not five seconds later the lady called back. At this point in his ALZ he only knows his name, DOB, and SSN. I’m so worried that he gave all of that information to a scammer. What can I do?

Alzheimer's & Dementia Elder Law Frauds & Scams

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Call all three credit bureaus and freeze his credit.

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Don't you have to have POA to do this?

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Experian:
1-800-397-3742
www.experian.com
Equifax:
1-800-685-1111
www.equifax.com
TransUnion:
1-800-888-4213
www.transunion.com

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I guess they are all closed for the evening. Good idea, I’ll try again tomorrow, thanks.

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That is scary! I would do as Barb suggest. You can’t overlook this. Those people prey on the vulnerable. The social security number is very serious. Identify theft can wreck a person’s life.

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I wonder if there is a way to block incoming calls but be able to use the phone for emergencies? Does your friend come in daily to check on husband? Since you have the ability to check on him, can you unplug your landline while at work?

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Hi! Thanks for taking the time to reply. He only knows how to dial 911 in an emergency. I have the landline so I can call him and remind him to go to the bathroom or to put his clothes back on. At this point I am rethinking the landline. Risk vs benifts are just too great.

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Besides freezing your credit, you should also get Identity Theft Protection. I use the company that Dave Ramsey recommends, Zander Insurance. He uses it for his family and everyone in his company. In case you don't know who Dave Ramsey is, he is a very popular financial adviser and has the 3rd most listened to radio show. He only recommends ethical businesses on his show and website. So I trust him.

It costs me $15/month for my whole family and it covers ALL types of losses related to identity theft.

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Great info. I need it for my mother. Thanks.

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I'm so grateful you had the cameras and could discover this! Though the credit agencies should be open for you now, anyone can submit it via internet at all hours. See BarbBrooklyn's post above for her thoughtful post that includes their websites.

For my mom, once the scum scammers discovered Mom was an easy target, I found out they were calling her every ten minutes! I ended up immediately changing her phone number that she'd had for 40 years and making it unlisted.

Also, does he have access to his or your credit cards and both of your monetary accounts? You may want to consider changing those card numbers and making them inaccessible to him. For the monetary accounts, Mom had found a way to travel to the bank (this was when we discovered she required round-the-clock care) was in the process of withdrawing money to send the scum scammers. A bank teller, who knew Mom, stopped her and informed her they were scammers.

In addition to all the other good advise above, you can sign you both up for Credit Karma. It's free and you can check both your credit reports. Every month, I pulled up Mom's account and studied for anything untoward--and mine.

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Block the number on his phone. Turn the number she called him from over to the FTC and make sure your phone number is on the DNC list. Hope this helps.

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The DNC list doesn't do anything. Scammers call anyway.

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Turn ringer OFF when you leave or hide receiver. For the current issue put a red flag on his ssn. You may have to wait to see what he did then deal with it.

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Good ideas

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I have the canary cameras. I can check in on my dad and also talk to him. No landline needed. I got him a cell phone in case I need to call him. I watch him on camera to know when he is near his phone before I call, which he usually is.

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Hi, I've never heard of "canary cameras". Can you explain or give more info, please? They sound very helpful. Also, where is the camera you watch him on? (At your work? ) How does it follow him around so you can see when he is near his phone? This sounds great to me, but is all new. Thank you so much.

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Don't worry Here, dear. I'm sure it is Okay. Maybe they want to Send him another Credit Card in his Name, He may have Very Good Credit.

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What does that even mean? How is it helpful?

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My parents switched their existing number from regular land line to a VOIP service (they use viatalk). The VOIP service offers lots of special features like call authentication where any unknown caller has to enter a 3 digit code for the phone to ring in the house. This allows us to call them directly, but it stopped the scam calls.

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I had the very same thing happen to me when my husband was in the middle stage of Alzheimer's. I can home from lunch and he was on the phone with a scammer saying " This person just want to help me". I started screaming " hang up". My husband started saying I don't trust people. Because my husband did not follow through the scammer caused our computer to crash. I had to get Technical Support to clean up the mess. My husband is now in the last stages of Alzheimer's and can not use his hands at all. It's almost time for Hospice. This phase you are going through will pass but the next stage will bring (DIFFERENT) problems. Those problems you have now are temporary.

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write credit bureaus and have a block placed on to prevent anyone from establishing anything in his name. Fraud alerts as well with all three major credit bureaus . I believe they are Equifax, Transunion and Experian. SSA should also be notified immediately!

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My LO I care for still has AT&T landline. We use their "Call Screening" service that only allows approved numbers to be received. It's limited to 20 numbers but it works in her case. If this was the case in my own home it would be ok bc my mobile is my primary contact number. Truly helpful as she had begun giving out her CC number donating to whomever called.

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Oh, I wish our cell phone provider had that option! It doesn't matter how many times I've explained to my 84 year old mom that she shouldn't answer calls that don't have a recognized name attached - she still answers.

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As others have said: Put a freeze on at all three credit bureaus. Its free to do now. You could turn the ringer off or have all calls forwarded to your cell phone. You can pull your credit report from all three agencies . it is free once a year. I would wait a few months for any activity to appear on your report.

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And notify your financial institutions.

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As others said put a credit freeze on your accounts with Experian and others right away. My mom must be on every scammers list so I sent her phone to ring only a couple of times so she can’t pick up and it will go to voicemail. Easy to call back real calls.

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You can go online to make the freeze by answering a few questions about past addresses, jobs, people you are related to. It took us an hour to do all 3 credit bureaus for both of us while watching a sporting event at home. I would also put a fraud alert on his accounts since he gave away his info.

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Go online and register with the "DO NOT CALL REGISTRY". After doing this you should not receive any marketing calls. Register with LIFELINK to monitor credit. If his social security number was used to buy anything, they will back you up.
I had to keep just one landline phone in my upstairs office, where my step dad could NOT get to the landline phone and make random phone calls.

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The DNC registry does not work. we have all 3 phones registered and still average between 5-10 robocalls per day.

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Hi..I have same problem. My phone stores all calls & numbers. I still go thru & I have a block button..& block all of them....

Also I set to 2 rings. She rarely hears it...would he benefit from cell phone, emergencies only?
Goodluck...u gotta love our folks!!!!! Lol.

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So here is a little story about the next phase to expect. Mum with ALZ lived in AL at the time. My brother called her several times to confirm he was coming to pick her up for church. When he got to her room the phone was no where in sight. He tracked the cord to an ottoman that has storage inside! When he asked Mum what the phone was doing in the ottoman she replied. " Oh that thing. It was making too much noise so I hid it in there where it's not so loud." 😳 Eventually they stop using the phone at all.

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Oh my word! Your lost is timely! I just saw an advertisement for a small device that you plug in to hour land line thst blocks these kinds of calls. Go online and look for it. It blocks literally thousands of known scam calls that prey on people, especially seniors. Wish i remembered the name of it. Go online and find it. I think it was only $89, well worth it. I have a very similar problem with my 85-year-old mom (need to buy that device for sure). I went to an elder care attorney who told me that I need to send letters to Mom’s creditors explaining her cognitive decline and that she does not understand the consequences of any of her actions -all for future reference. I am thinking it might be a good idea to send a similar letter to the list of agencies posted here, too. As responsible caregivers, we must take care of our own sanity, too. Best of luck.

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This device has programed numbers but...there will be some that aren't programed in the unit. The person then has to push a button to block that call. These telemarketers find all kinds of ways to get around the FTC rules. One is robo calls are not to be used.

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The "no call registry is a joke". They allow charities, political calls and surveys. Everyone I don't want to hear from and charities ask for money. Robo calls just hunt for good numbers.

I had seen the same Charity pop up on my phone for days so I finally picked up. I asked her to take my name off her mailing and phone list. She told me charities didn't have to do that. I told her if I request my name removed, she has to do it. Never heard from them again.

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My 92 year old father had a number of "friendly relationships" with "very nice people" who would call and chat with him and learn the names of his children. They lured him in to a number of different "investment" schemes. For example, he thought he was purchasing precious metals when, in reality, they were worthless fake paper certificates. He had saved for many years toward his retirement and savings to help take care of our mother. They ended up losing over $50,000 in one scheme. The scammers were calling frequently - he was an easy target. When we realized what was happening, we finally had to cancel his land line phone number and switched to an unlisted number. He passed away last year. I truly wish the FCC would figure out how to more effectively identify and effectively penalize known telemarketing scammers. This has been going on for so many years and the "Do not call Registry" does not work. People who do not care about the law simply ignore the registry. They use multiple different numbers. However, a little basic investigation could identify and prosecute the telemarketing scammers - if they truly wanted to. We need some "teeth" in our laws. I tried to track down the scammers and learned they simply move their headquarters from state to state and it costs more in legal fees to pursue the offenders than it's worth. They know this and, unless the government gets serious, they will continue to prey on vulnerable people.

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Lie your a** off. Call whomever you need to and have a male friend, armed with Dad's SSN and other information, cancel whatever looks out of place on his financials. I do a pretty good 92 year old mystified and strident old lady on the phone. I did this from her home phone, so caller id was correct. "Return postage? No way. I'm unable to get to a post office. Please help me get this straightened out." I had to do this a number of times for my Mother-in-law. She was happy to let me, so I did not have to deceive her, just the crackpots on the other end of the line.

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Go to Consumer Cellular and get them a Grandpad. The device is very reasonably priced and monthly service is less than a land line in our area. It's simple to use and the caregiver is the administrator. Only people who can call your elderly person is who you have set up in it. My mom was getting taken by scam after scam and now is in assisted living with her grandpad. It is a wonderful device with photos, weather, articles to read, games and more. I am not getting paid for advertising for them, I'm just very impressed with the Grandpad.

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Sounds brilliant! I have to remember when the time comes! I thought about just putting a switch outside and turn phone off when I leave. Leave cell phone for emergency use!

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He cannot be left home alone much longer. This was my mother in law and she blew through 150k with scammers! No joke. Put a forward on home ph that incoming calls go to your cell so u can screen them. Get a life alert type device n keep your cam for remote monitoring. Limit his time alone or consider adult day care unfortunately it’s time.

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It might reassure you for the time being to get one of those LifeAlert systems that monitor everything. Maybe cancel and replace your credit cards and close and open new checking accounts, alert companies of potential for something.

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I feel your pain. My mom has ALZ and even when it was at the beginning she was falling for schemes, most of which we were able to undo. Now she is pretty far gone, but insists on going through all emails (doesn't understand that you can tag and mass delete). She even writes return emails when she doesn't make a donation to a particular charity/candidate/whatever! So she is stressed about all the "work" she needs to do. My brothers and I are slowly but surely "unsubscribing" her to as many as possible...

One thing that is cutting out the calls is that she is now in Assisted Living (and likely soon in Memory Care) and only has a cell phone. Fewer scammers get through on those phones although no way to avoid completely.

A couple of months ago she was convinced that she was the victim of credit card fraud and cancelled all her credit cards and had them reissued. It ended up that all the charges were her legit charges.

The other thing is that she has relinquished control of her finances. If your dad will do that, you can take over all the credit cards.

Finally, at one point we put a sign by Mom's landline that said "Never give out your Social Security number."

Best of luck!

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How to cancel anything my husband may have done on a call from a solicitor/scam artist?

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