June is Elder Abuse Awareness Month – stay aware and stay safe.
Financial fraud is an ongoing concern, especially for elderly individuals, but it doesn’t have to impact your members. Credit unions can be partners in financial safety, constantly looking out for suspicious activity and providing resources to help keep our members’ personal information secure.
As technology advances, criminals are continuously trying to find new ways to obtain personal information, but there are a few basic tips to remember that can keep anyone safe from fraud. The easiest is strengthening your passwords or using passphrases, as well as turning on multi-factor or two-factor authentication when available.
Here are some other simple practices that are useful for anyone of any age, but especially helpful to seniors, who are often the victims of fraudsters:
- Plan ahead – Seniors should consider designating a trusted individual who can help monitor their accounts or assist with financial decisions, if needed. At Ascend, we offer our members aged 65 or older an extra layer of account security with our Advance Consent Agreement. By opting in, members authorize Ascend to contact a listed “trusted contact” in the event Ascend suspects fraud or abuse.
- Stay informed – Using digital banking resources to check account statements and credit history regularly is the best way to catch any suspicious activity quickly. Also, signing up for account alerts can help raise a red flag on anything fishy.
- Beware of spoofing – Spoofing is where criminals appear as a trusted business or individual on your Caller ID or email and ask for information. They will often call posing as a financial institution’s fraud department and ask victims to reset their passwords and share the one-time passcode they receive, granting the criminals access to accounts. Always verify the validity of any phone calls, emails or text messages before giving information, clicking on links or downloading attachments.
- Watch what you post – Oversharing personal information on social media in posts or quiz answers can give criminals answers to common account security questions like the make and model of your first car. Sharing your location can also be an easy way for criminals to track where you are.
It’s important to understand that while financial fraud is often perpetuated by strangers, unfortunately, it’s also common for seniors to be exploited financially by someone close to them, such as a caregiver, family member or trusted acquaintance. Caregivers or family members of elderly individuals should be mindful of unusual or unauthorized bank withdrawals, missing personal belongings, sudden changes to legal documents or wills, unpaid bills, mounting debt or any forged signatures. These may be signs of financial exploitation. Suspected financial abuse should be reported immediately to law enforcement.
Resources
For more resources on how to protect elderly individuals’ finances and personal information, visit SafeSeniorTN.com, which is an outreach of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, in cooperation with the East Tennessee Area Agency on Aging and Disability.
Ascend is federally insured by the NCUA.
