Father in his 80s, preyed upon by mail and tele marketers, how to help?
Dad, 80, gets a mountain of mail and continuous phone calls.
He has symptoms of alzheimer’s and has charged or written checks totaling $10,000 in January.
Fortune tellers, overseas lotteries, coin dealers, political donations, etc, etc.
If he authorizes the transactions, they can’t be reversed.
Contacting the companies will not stop them.
Need to change his environment as controlling his behavior doesn’t last.
Take away his credit cards and he gets new ones.
Want to try to make his saving less accessable.
Suggestions?
Talk to a lawyer and get power of attorney. They can tell you the best way to deal with the money situation. Contact the post office and have them help cut off the junk mail. Get him on your state’s Do Not Call list for telemarketers.
Talk to a lawyer and get power of attorney. They can tell you the best way to deal with the money situation. Contact the post office and have them help cut off the junk mail. Get him on your state’s Do Not Call list for telemarketers.
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I would suggest opt out. i dont have the number but you can look up the site on yahoo search. Also call block on your personal phone
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petition the family court in his state to appoint a guardian over his financial affairs. if you live in the same state, this can be you.
after the guardian is appointed, make sure it is communicated to all of his accounts [they may want to open new accounts] and published in the local paper [this may be automatic].
after that, no charges or checks can be honored without the approval of the guardian.
also — put his phone number on the Do Not Call list.
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my father is near 85 and has same situation. I’m in charge of his finances now.
The poor man they are horrible people preying on vulnerable old people. There should be some regulatory body like an ombudsman in your country. The is one in the UK called MOPS (I think it is call the mail order protection something sorry can’t remember) you should search internet or contact you local post office or citizens advice they maybe able to help
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To end the phone calls, add your father to the Do Not Call Registry by visiting https://www.donotcall.gov/
To end the junk mail, visit http://www.directmail.com/ and add his name to the registry.
For more information on Alzheimer’s and the warning signs you need to look for, please visit http://www.alz.org/
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https://www.donotcall.gov/
http://www.directmail.com/
http://www.alz.org/
The law is SO far behind on this it’s not funny. Things that should help a bit include:
get him a new phone number–doesn’t have to be unlisted but use a different name as HIS name is on all the sucker’s lists out there you can count on that
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
see about monitoring his credit reports for him–technically he’s supposed to do this but sounds like he can’t
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/prescreen.shtm
helps you opt out–change the phone number first
http://idtheft.about.com/od/youridentityisstolen/p/FRAUDALERT.htm
tells you how to do fraud alerts–should help a bit
make sure his SS check and any others are on automatic deposit. Have automatic pay for all legit bills. Seems to me you could put some of the money in another savings account or even CD (shorter term) for him so that limts what scammers could access. If he’s lucid some of the time this should be doable.
You can seek guardianship, but that will cost big bucks, involve a lawyer, and take time.
"This is relatively uncommon and the majority of patients with dementia who would qualify for legal guardianship do not have one. In the United States state law governs guardianship. These statues are generally sensitive to the fact that competency is task specific but the dyadic nature of the decision to award guardianship may not fully embrace this principle. A physician’s certification of incapacity is a required component of the guardianship application. There are concerns about physicians understanding of guardianship and its implications. If a guardianship application is not contested, it is very likely that the guardianship will be granted based on the physicians’ certification. The states vary with regards to the detail of medical information required to determine guardianship. Guardianship is not a step to be taken lightly. A person’s rights are severely restricted by guardianship. Physicians must be as objective as possible when making their determination and should not have their judgment swayed by the demands of third parties. A diagnosis of dementia alone should never be the basis for awarding guardianship. (24,25) The patients’ cognitive deficits must functionally impair them to the degree that they cannot meaningfully participate in the decisions they are being asked to make. Physicians being asked to assess patients prior to a guardianship hearing need to directly assess the patients decision making capacity and not simply use assessment tools such as the Folstein Mini Mental Status Examination. "
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:2O1×0cskG98J:ags.frycomm.com/handouts/2006/docs/coll.pdf+how+to+get+guardianship+of+dementia+patient+US&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=19&gl=us
Is he on his own? If he really has dementia, he should not be. Caretaker should get mail and sort through–he gets personal mail, mags, but not the "gimme money" ones–you can go through those. Should also answer his phone for him. Again, yes to personal calls, no to thieves. Or at least get him to screen calls with answering machine.
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If you tell a company that you do not want correspondance for them (phone calls or mail) and they do not stop contacting it is against the law (I have known a few who have taken companies for this because they were repeatidly contacted after htey made their wishes clear.) when you answer tell themyou wish to be taken off their conatact list and if you are not and you recieve any more calls or letters that you will take legal action. Should stop them pretty quick.
Something you can do about mail is go to your local post office that deals with his mailings and put anotice on it. Tell them that you are his caregiver (you may need a medical letter to show his state of mind) and that all correspondance be directed to you. This way you can filter out all his junk from his actual mail. You should also go to the bank and put a hold on his accounts, make it so that no cheques can be cashed from his account (again a medical statement will be needed) except from his utility and other services that you give approval to (heat/light, rent, cable, phone etc his fixed type of expenses that he writes checks for) this way he can not get scammed. They will contact you to ask for approval from any other company that is not approved and you can make the ultimate decision. It may cost more for his bank account to do this BUT in the long run it will save him money. (we had this done to my great grandmothers, who was also alzheimers and preyed on)
You will need his approval of course to do these things but I do not see him turning you down as you only need his signature once at the bank and at the post office. All mail that is junk simply write return to sender on it and drop back in the mail, afetr a while they will stop sending out mail to his address.
If however the post office will not do this or the bank will not, then simply get a new postal box for his real mail, contact the companies you want to have this and any family that you want to have this address and this way he will only get the good maila dn you can dispose of all the junk without him getting his hands on it and he will only be writing checks for his needs not garbage.
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Here are some sites to help. There isn’t an instant answer because they have a 30 day grace period to stop. The first site is REALLY good informationally and the other two you can actually put in a phone number to block. I did it and it worked…except for non-profits -they seem to leak thru.
Are you on his accounts? Maybe for his savings accounts you can put it into a limited account - like one where you can only get it out once a quarter. Or maybe you can put an alert to be notified.
Or go to court and show your evidence that he is unable to take care of this situation and is being taken advantaga of- do it with a loving heart.
Maybe get a in-home companion to monitor him.
Talk to his Doctor - Maybe it’s time to up his medication to combat the Alz. or maybe it’s time to transition to a care facility. Sorry
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/protect.shtm
https://www.donotcall.gov/
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall/
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Best friend’s Dad was Univ. Chemistry prof. taken by Alz.