Can someone give us some advice please? The bailiffs(?) have just been round to my elderly relative's house who has undiagnosed dementia, to collect £3k as they have signed up to over £200 per month to an obscure charity in London and then not paid anything (they certainly cannot afford £200 a month). We sort of remember something as about a year ago as when we were visiting we heard them giving their card details and all their passwords and account numbers etc to someone on the phone, but by the time we got into the room, they had hung up and when questioned, they couldn't remember who it was on the phone. This was then followed up by a demand for payment from the 'charity'. My husband then phoned them and told them our relative has dementia and didn't know what they were signing up to and we thought that was the end of it as we had not heard anything since. However, it appears that they have been binning everything including final demands, hence the bailiffs coming round. We have had to pay up on their behalf and we cannot afford it either. We cannot find any paperwork/contracts and we are worried that this is just the start of it. Our relative has become very confrontational and aggressive and is no help whatsoever. They just don't seem to comprehend the severity of the problem. Has anyone had anything similar? What are their/our legal rights? Do we even have any?
elderly relative has been scammed?
- Thread starter Farmer Fred
- Start date
Hello @Farmer Fred, you are welcome here and I'm sorry that it's a distressing situation that has brought you to the forum.
I don't know the answer to your question so may I suggest that it may be worth talking to your local CAB, or the experts on our help line, details of which are as follows
National Dementia Helpline
0300 222 11 22
Our helpline advisers are here for you.
Helpline opening hours:
Monday to Wednesday 9am – 8pm
Thursday and Friday 9am – 5pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am – 4pm
Other members who have experience of such a situation may be along later, or tomorrow, to offer the benefit of their experience.
I don't know the answer to your question so may I suggest that it may be worth talking to your local CAB, or the experts on our help line, details of which are as follows
National Dementia Helpline
0300 222 11 22
Our helpline advisers are here for you.
Helpline opening hours:
Monday to Wednesday 9am – 8pm
Thursday and Friday 9am – 5pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am – 4pm
Other members who have experience of such a situation may be along later, or tomorrow, to offer the benefit of their experience.
It does not sound like a genuine charity if bailiffs are involved. If you have paid the debt to the bailiffs then you should have some paperwork with the name of the person or company who are claiming payment. Try searching online to see who they are and if not genuine, then you need to report them.
My mother has been scammed several times over the phone and set up direct debits to dubious phone companies who claim to block scammers for a monthly fee! Since using our LPAs to look at her finances we also found that she is paying huge sums for extended warranties on various kitchen appliances, bought from a very reputable store who outsource the insurance, in four years she has paid much more than the cost of replacing the appliances! I now have the paperwork and when they are up for renewal, will be ending the insurance.
We have just installed a call blocker on her phone so only trusted numbers that I have saved will be able to get through, everyone else gets told to call me on my phone number. I also scratched off the small numbers off the back of her debit card so she cannot buy anything over the phone.
My mother is a sucker for charities who send her letters with little gifts ( coasters, cards, stamps etc) and she thinks she has to send money for them.
My mother has been scammed several times over the phone and set up direct debits to dubious phone companies who claim to block scammers for a monthly fee! Since using our LPAs to look at her finances we also found that she is paying huge sums for extended warranties on various kitchen appliances, bought from a very reputable store who outsource the insurance, in four years she has paid much more than the cost of replacing the appliances! I now have the paperwork and when they are up for renewal, will be ending the insurance.
We have just installed a call blocker on her phone so only trusted numbers that I have saved will be able to get through, everyone else gets told to call me on my phone number. I also scratched off the small numbers off the back of her debit card so she cannot buy anything over the phone.
My mother is a sucker for charities who send her letters with little gifts ( coasters, cards, stamps etc) and she thinks she has to send money for them.
My mum also is a sucker for charities. We have a LPOA and have to check her bank statement every month. My sister normally has to cancel at least 2 new ones a month. We spoke to the bank manager and he was really helpful and gave us advice. I think that your idea for scratching off the 3 digits from the back of her debit card is a brilliant idea, thank you. I would also recommend people talk to bank managers as they are really helpful.
Could you please tell me how I would go about putting the call blocker on my mums phone? I think that would also be really useful. Thank you
We did a lot of reasearch on call blockers and decided to buy one called True Call. There were cheaper ones but they appeared to require the person answering the phone to press buttons after certain calls. Also not all of them worked on old fashioned plug in phones with extensions.
True call recommend using one specific model for pwd, I have set it up with a list of trusted numbers which I input on my computer using their app and recorded my own message which all other caller hear. It tells them to phone my number if they want to speak to mum - the manual suggests a suitable message. I also turned the volume on the true call unit to mute to stop it giving little bleeps when calls were intercepted.
I can add new members remotely at home, see a log of all calls including who mum phones and mum has no idea it is there as we hid the small unit underneath a cupboard. It did take a while for me to process all the options but when I phoned the help desk, they were brilliant.
If you want one, make sure you buy the specific unit for pwd, they have different models, it was the most expensive one - but well worth it!
I am so sorry to hear of this incident. It sounds like a crime. You should report it at once to the police who will investigate, and there is a special unit for fraud. It will be of interest to them as nobody just scams one elderly person - these are large scale national crimes. I'd recommend also that you call You and Yours the Radio 4 midday programme who often pursues investigations into this sort of scam on this sort of vulnerable person. One thing strikes me as odd - if the criminals had the bank information with pass words and cards did they empty the account and then send baliffs for more money? Because if they emptied an elderly person's account the bank might be liable for a claim of lack of care, and they would know the payee. But sending a baliff sounds a bit odd after emptying the account. So if they did not have authority to empty the account they perhaps didnt have authority to order a baliff? If there was no agreement to pay? Either way this is for sure criminal and should be investigated by the police and you could also alert the Charity Commissioners who would investigate in case there was a 'front facade' of a registered charity.
You still have the problem of your relative who is not competent to handle this sort of thing, and you should certainly alert the bank to watch out for new transactions. The bank has a duty of care.
You still have the problem of your relative who is not competent to handle this sort of thing, and you should certainly alert the bank to watch out for new transactions. The bank has a duty of care.
I just thought I would mention that when you get post redirected the PO sends a letter to the old address confirming the redirection. So if you dont want them to know that you have redirected the post then you will have to find some way of intercepting this letter before they read it.
