Member-only story
How Fraudsters Targeted My Elderly Mom and I Fought Back From An Ocean Away
A true story sprinkled with tips on how to protect yourself or your loved ones
I discovered the fraud and the dementia at the same time via text.
We noticed a new sign-in to your Google Account on a Windows device. If this was you, you don’t need to do anything. If not, we’ll help you secure your account.
Windows? I’m an Apple gal. Wait a minute, this is for Mom’s account?
Protip #1: Add your email as a recovery option to your loved ones key accounts such as Google and Apple
Mom doesn’t own a computer only an iPhone and iPad. Was it one of my many siblings, visiting and trying to help Mom? A quick phone call ruled out that theory.
I used my recovery email status to log into my Mom’s gmail. In amongst all the legit but exploitative and the straight up scam emails was an alarming number of your-account-details-have-been changed-if-this-was you-don’t-worry-about-it-if-not-panic-now emails.
Luckily, years ago I had used my iPad to log into Mom’s bank while helping her with a problem. I’d meant to delete the app immediately not intending to be all up…