How do we stop Mum giving her bank account details to people over the phone

[BeverleyC]

My mother has dementia and lives alone and is supported by carers that call 3 times a day, My sister and I don't live close to Mum I am 250 miles away and sister 600 miles away. We have LPA in place and keep an eye on her bank account.

Despite having a phone that screens unknown callers, Mum is constantly plagued by scams and more worryingly legit companies selling insurance for drains, household appliances... and she has given her bank details out over the phone and direct debits have been set up. My sister then regularly checks and luckily has been able to contact many of the companies and get refunded, but not all and i would say over last year Mum has lost nearly £600.

We have notes up by the phone saying do not give your details out, and carers have managed to stop her a few times, but Mum gets very distressed and upset. With the bank we have set up that she can not pay for anything with her card over the phone, but this doesn't stop direct debits being set up. We spoke to bank and they said that there is little they can do as if we take her card from her there is no way that she could get cash and pay for minor things in shop.

So does anyone have a solution .. ideally we would love for her to have a card like you use for children where we can release funds onto it but there is no way direct debits can be set up .. but this doesn't exist for adults .. anyone got any advise

we want her to still have some independent by having a bank card as we can't really deal in cash as we live so far away

Many thanks in advance

 

[karaokePete]

Hello and welcome to the forum @BeverleyC

That situation is a worry. My wife was scammed out of her bank details over the phone some years ago and only my fast action stopped a substantial loss. I was then able to block nuisance calls and just kept a low balance in my wife's account. My wife's dementia has now progressed to the stage where she no longer understands financial matters and I keep charge of her bank card. I see that this isn't a solution for you.

I'm aware that people have used prepaid cards as some of them don't allow DD's and I wonder if that would be a solution.

Others who have managed to solve a similar problem may be along tomorrow. We do have a very knowledgeable membership on the forum so do keep posting.

 

[BeverleyC]

Hello and welcome to the forum @BeverleyC

That situation is a worry. My wife was scammed out of her bank details over the phone some years ago and only my fast action stopped a substantial loss. I was then able to block nuisance calls and just kept a low balance in my wife's account. My wife's dementia has now progressed to the stage where she no longer understands financial matters and I keep charge of her bank card. I see that this isn't a solution for you.

I'm aware that people have used prepaid cards as some of them don't allow DD's and I wonder if that would be a solution.

Others who have managed to solve a similar problem may be along tomorrow. We do have a very knowledgeable membership on the forum so do keep posting.

thanks

 

[Duggies-girl]

Hi @BeverleyC My dad gave his details over the phone once but he told me and I phoned his bank but nothing was taken. I have read on here more than a few times that if you scratch the three numbers off the back of the card it can help. It will at least stop her from buying things that she does not want although I am not sure if it will stop direct debits being taken out. She will still be able to use her card for shopping but it should protect against most scams.

It is a good idea to make a record of the three numbers in case she wants to purchase something later.

 

[Countryboy]

You could also receive texts to help confirm your identity

To give you greater protection against fraud, the way you pay online is changing.

New rules on payment services mean you’ll sometimes be asked to prove it really is you when making some online purchases.

One of the ways to confirm your identity will be to choose to have a text sent directly to your mobile.

Here’s what to expect when the new verification screen pops up

• Choose ‘Receive a code by text message’ and select ‘Next’
• You’ll see a new message on the verification screen telling you that a one-time verification code will be sent to your phone
• You’ll then receive a text message on your mobile, with the verification code you need to enter into the verification screen
• Once you’ve entered the verification code, follow the on-screen instructions to complete your payment

 

[Lynmax]

We bought a Truecall device to block mums phone. It has a dementia setting which means that only calls made from numbers that I input into a trusted list will get through to mum. Anyone else get a message from me telling them that mum only accepts calls from friends and family, giving my mobile number for them to phone me if they need mum. I paid a small amount for an annual contract with an app on my laptop so I could monitor the data. Calls from unknown numbers never got through and in the first year, only one person phoned me to try to talk to mum.

It’s worth a look at.

 

[MartinWL]

There is such a thing as a prepaid debit card, where the holder can only spend money that is "put on" it. I haven't looked into the detail but it might be worth exploring.

 

[marionq]

If you have online access to her account there should be a section called “Managing your card” or something similar. If you go into that it should show lists of Standing Orders or Direct Debits. On a daily or weekly basis if you check that and see she has set up yet another DD then you can cancel that there and then without involving the bank.

I would also buy a telephone or subscribe to a system which limits her phone calls. I use BT 6350 and have never had a scam call since I set it up. Unknown callers don’t get through.

Lastly as suggested above scrape the security number off the back of the card after making a note of the number. This won’t stop DDs but will stop her buying stuff over the phone. She can still do local shopping without noticing.