Home Instead Senior Care and Raider Ranch hosted a workshop for seniors and their families Tuesday.
Sue Yandell uses her iPhone and computer every single day, and she’s no stranger to con-artists targeting senior adults.
“You don’t know, because they’re so professional when they do it that you can’t, in West Texas we’re so understanding or we think everybody’s all right you know so it’s hard for us to accuse people of things,” Yandell said.
Tracy Baugh with Home Instead said it’s not shocking thieves size up this age group.
“Seniors are from the greatest generation, they want to help others, and they are generous and they also have a perceived accumulation of wealth,” Baugh said, “That is often very accurate, that they’ve worked very hard all their lives but they’re also willing to give, so that’s why scammers target them with things like the sweepstakes.”
One couple at the luncheon lost $300 in a ransom-ware scam. Home Instead is doing what they can to prevent the same thing from happening to others.
“So some of the things that we show them how to do is to make sure they have good passwords in place, which is good for anyone at any age…making sure that they’re not over-sharing on social media, that they know what the red flags are,” Baugh said.
Yandell said she’ll continue to do what she can to educate her friends.
“It’s just being our age group, that we are definitely targeted and that’s something we really need more knowledge about and appreciate it.”
