Chester at-home care provider, Home Instead Senior Care, has delivered scam awareness training to more than 500 people through its partnership with national scam awareness charity, Think Jessica.
This type of fraudulent activity reaches people via postal, internet and telephone scams.
The care provider has rolled out a local programme of fraud workshops providing tips and advice to educate groups and individuals on how to protect themselves from falling victim to this abuse. The workshops have been provided to many groups including Friends Reunited, Cheshire Carers Centre, Oddfellows, local churches, the Salvation Army, and Shell Pensioners.
The most recent workshop took place at a Hospice of the Good Shepherd in Backford, Chester, where more than 30 people received the training.
Home Instead has also put together a free Senior Fraud Protection Kit which contains information on the most common scams, tools to help assess the risk of an elderly loved one, plus really useful checklists to help seniors take practical action to lower the risk of becoming a victim of a scam.
Owner of Home Instead Chris Broadbent said: “The faceless criminals who use email, telephone, and post to lure their victims into parting with their life savings, personal banking information and other assets, often prey in particular on the elderly who they see as easy targets for their crimes.
“These types of scams defraud individuals in the UK of an estimated £3.5 billion each year and have very serious consequences for the elderly who can suffer devastating emotional distress plus loss of confidence and trust which can lead to a loss of independence. The sad thing is that much of this could be avoided with better awareness and education.”
Any local groups interested in learning more about fraud protection or who would like more information on the ‘Senior Fraud Protection Kit’ should contact Chris at Home Instead Senior Care on 01244 851744 or visit http://www.homeinstead.co.uk/chester .
