Is there any effective way to prevent an elderly relative falling victim to nuisance phone calls? Cold calls and nuisance phone calls affect everyone but the consequences of nuisance phone calls can be particularly devastating for elderly and vulnerable people. If you are worried about an elderly relative and the risk of phone scams as well as unscrupulous companies taking advantage of your relative’s good nature, there are a number of things you can do.
Here are 3 tips taken from theguardian for increasing phone security and preventing nuisance phone calls – these ideas work for the younger members of your family, too.
Image attributed to FreeDigitalPhotos.net Ambro
Stop nuisance phone calls and increase peace of mind for your elderly relative
Three prevention strategies
1: Register your relative’s number with the Telephone Preference Service. The TPS is a free service that is made up of a register of people who have reported that they do not want to receive calls from salespeople or telemarketers. When you register your home phone or your mobile the service is supposed to prevent unsolicited calls from reaching you. However, this works only up to a certain point – the service does not prevent recorded messages, silent calls, calls for market research purposes, or – most crucially – calls from international numbers. The amount of businesses that have international call centres is rising, which makes this potentially problematic.
2: Teach your relative to say “no thank you” and to hang up. It can be difficult to persuade someone to do this when they are naturally inclined to be polite and to listen to what someone is saying but it is worth persevering to prevent your relative entering into long conversations where there is more chance they will end up purchasing something they don’t need. Similarly, try to get your relative to answer calls only from people he or she knows – program the caller display with the numbers of your family and their friends.
3: Use a call blocking device. One way of getting round your relative’s tendency to pick up the phone every time it rings is to install a call blocker on their phone. This device gives you various options on how to handle calls, and automatically blocks the phone from ringing when a blocked number tries to get in touch.
Impact of unwanted calls on the elderly
You may have already experienced the difficulties the elderly can get into when faced with sales or cold calls. They switch energy providers without really wanting to, sign up for gym membership, pay over the phone for new windows, or buy PPI without realizing what they are doing. Of course, elderly people can be as sharp (or as slow) as the rest of us but sometimes it is particularly difficult for the elderly or vulnerable to deal with the intensive nature of the persistent salesperson.
Sales calls can be stressful, too. If your relative doesn’t understand why someone is calling, or struggles to decide if a call is genuine or not, then stress levels soar and result in anxiety or even fear. Silent calls, where the call is generated by a call centre but no one is there to take the call when you pick up, can be extremely frightening for someone living on their own. One key way to stop nuisance phone calls is to install a call blocking device to give peace of mind and added security.
