It’s not unusual at all for scammers to target the elderly, especially with health scams that are too good to be true. Your elderly family member might find these offers tempting, especially if she’s on her own a lot and is experiencing a variety of health concerns. Make sure she knows to look for these signs of a scam.
Someone Is Promising Her a Fast Cure.
One of the biggest signs that a health solution might be a scam is that the cure is one that works really fast, even overnight in some cases. The seller of the cure might also tell your senior that it’s a painless cure that requires no effort at all on her part. The reason this is a red flag is that very few treatments work quickly, especially if they’re actually doing something good for your elderly family member.
She Has to Send Someone a Lot of Money.
Lots of these health scams, particularly the ones that target the elderly, involve big amounts of money. The seller of the treatment may also require payment in advance or tell your senior that there’s not enough of the cure to go around. This creates an artificial scarcity that is meant to spur your senior to action and get her to send them money as fast as possible.
The Cure Works for Lots of Problems.
It’s not enough that the cure is fast and expensive, but it also usually solves quite a few health problems in one fell swoop. This can be appealing to your elderly family member if she’s fighting quite a few problems all at once. Very few treatments are truly effective on a multitude of health problems all at once. Your senior may not want to believe this, though, especially if the sales pitch is really good.
She Can Only Get the Cure through the Mail.
Finally, your senior may tell you that she can only get this treatment through the mail. This is really important because once she “signs up” for this treatment, it’s usually really, really difficult to ever cancel these now automatic orders. Often it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get someone on the phone in order to make sure that your senior won’t continue to be charged.
If you’re worried that your elderly family member might fall victim to some sort of health scam, senior care providers can help alert you to phone calls or mail she’s getting. This is especially important if you and your elderly family member live far apart and you don’t get to see her very often.
If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring senior care in Westfield, NJ, call the caring staff at Helping Hands Home Care today at 908-418-4299. Providing Home Care Services in all of Northern and Central NJ, including Clark, Westfield, Cranford, Scotch Plains, Rahway, Linden, Summit, Edison, Elizabeth, Mountainside and the surrounding areas.
After graduating from Seton Hall University with a BS in finance Helping Hands Homecare’s Owner / President, Robert D’Arienzo, went to work on Wall St. for six years. However, after Robert’s grandmother became ill with stomach cancer Robert and his family needed to find assistance in the home for her. After many trials and tribulations Robert could see that there was a great need for quality home care services here in NJ and loved the idea of being able to assist other families who were going through what his family went through with his beloved grandmother.
Thus, Robert had found his passion. After almost a year of preparation Robert opened Helping Hands Homecare in 2003. Robert wanted Helping Hands Homecare to focus on providing the highest quality of caregivers, exceptional customer service, and providing a service that familys could depend on in their time of need. Since then Helping Hands has assisted hundreds of individuals with the simplest of needs to more complex cases while preserving those standards set out many years ago.
Robert is a Google Verified Author
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