Protect an Older Parent

Seven things that actually work, how to set each one up, and what to do in the first hour if money has already gone. Written for the person doing the worrying.

⚡ Start here — the three that matter most

If you do nothing else, do these. They are free, they take an afternoon, and together they stop most of what happens to older people.

📞 1. A call blocker

This is the single most effective piece of kit for an older person living alone, and almost nobody knows it exists. It is a small box that connects between the telephone and the wall socket. When a call comes in from a number on its block list, the phone never rings.

• ✅ Some local councils provide them free to residents who are vulnerable or living alone. Ask the adult social care team at your council before buying anything.
• ✅ Better models let you add numbers as they come in, rather than relying only on a pre-loaded list.
• ✅ Set it up yourself rather than asking your parent to do it. The installation is the barrier, not the concept.
• ✅ Test it by calling from your own mobile afterwards. A blocker that has quietly stopped all calls is worse than none.

🔇 2. Answerphone screening

Free, and it works on any phone. The rule is simple: let every number you do not recognise go to the answerphone. Pick up only when someone you know actually speaks.

• ✅ Record a clear greeting that tells callers to leave a message. A scammer reading a script will usually hang up.
• ✅ Turn on voicemail on the mobile too if they have one. The same logic applies.
• ✅ Reassure them it is not rude. This is the objection that stops people doing it. It is not rude, it is the correct way to answer a phone in 2026.

🔑 3. A family safe phrase

Artificial intelligence can now copy a person’s voice from as little as three seconds of audio — often lifted from a video on social media. A grandchild’s voice on the phone is no longer proof that it is them.

A safe phrase fixes this. It is a word or short sentence that only your family knows, agreed in advance, and used to verify any call that asks for money or urgency.

• ❌ Never text it, email it, or post it. That is exactly where a scammer will find it. This is the mistake most families make.
• ✅ Choose something nobody could guess and that will not appear in an old social media post.
• ✅ Agree it with everyone — all grandchildren, all siblings. One person not knowing the phrase invites a confusing conversation at the worst moment.
• ✅ If the caller cannot give the phrase, hang up and call the person back on a number already saved in the phone.

📱 4. Stop the calls and texts at source

Three free measures, none of which take long.

• ✅ Telephone Preference Service (TPS) — cuts most legitimate cold calls. Register at tpsonline.org.uk, or text TPS and the email address to 85095 for a mobile.
• ✅ Network spam filtering — EE, O2, Vodafone and Three all offer free spam-text filtering. Turn it on in the account settings; it is usually off by default.
• ✅ 7726 — forward any scam text to this number, free. It costs nothing and it gets numbers shut down for everybody else.

🏦 5. The numbers that save time

In a panic, nobody looks things up. Put these on a card by the phone.

• ✅ 159 — one number that connects to most UK banks’ fraud teams. No need to find the right one.
• ✅ The bank’s number from the back of the card — written out large, not just stored in a phone.
• ✅ 0300 123 2040 — Report Fraud (formerly Action Fraud), or reportfraud.police.uk.
• ✅ 101 for non-emergency police, 999 if someone is at the door or there is immediate danger.

⚠️ 6. The follow-up scam — the call after the loss

This is the part almost nobody warns families about, and it is when people lose the most.

After someone has been scammed, the same criminals call again. They pretend to be the police, or a company that recovers lost money, or the bank’s fraud team. They offer to get the money back — for a fee, or for your details so they can “process the refund”.

That second call is the same scam continuing. Real organisations never cold-call offering to recover money for a fee.

• ❌ No legitimate body cold-calls to recover lost money. None. Not the police, not the bank, not a regulator.
• ✅ Tell your parent this before it happens, not after. In the moment they will want to believe the person offering help.
• ✅ Check the victim’s call log afterwards for numbers you do not recognise. That is where the second attempt shows up.

🚨 7. The first hour — if money has gone

Speed is everything. Do these in this order.

• 1. Call the bank immediately — 159, or the number on the card. Ask them to stop the payment and freeze the account.
• 2. Ask about the reimbursement rules. Under rules in force since October 2024, most people tricked into transferring money to a scammer are entitled to be paid back by their bank. Ask directly — they will not always volunteer it.
• 3. Change passwords on any account whose details were given, starting with online banking. Use a different password from the one used elsewhere.
• 4. Report it to Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040. You will get a crime reference number, and the report is what gets these operations shut down.
• 5. Stop all contact with the scammer. They will try again.
• 6. Expect the follow-up call described above. Warn them in advance.

💬 How to have the conversation

The advice is the easy part. Getting someone to accept it without feeling controlled is not.

• ✅ Never tell them what to do. Being told feels like losing control, and it makes people defend the decision they were about to question.
• ✅ Explain the scam, then let them decide. “This is how it works” lands better than “you must not do this”.
• ✅ Never say “how did you fall for that”. These scams are designed to fool careful people. Shame is how victims go quiet, and silence is how money is lost twice.
• ✅ Do the technical part yourself. Setting up a blocker, turning on filtering, writing the numbers out. That is the help that actually gets used.