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Care Campaign for the Vulnerable calls for more protection for the elderly targeted by 'scammers' for their life savings

CCFTV is appalled by the ever-increasing incidence of cold callers targeting older people for their life savings. Quite understandably when a caller purports to be representing a bank or another large credible organisation and then suggests that the person being called needs to take immediate actionto avoid having their savings stolen, it is natural to panic and perhaps at the moment, disclose information that subsequently aids the scammer. As a consequence of that decision, lives have often been ruined, planned retirements put on hold, an ability to pass a small inheritance to the family completely lost and self-recrimination an everyday feature for the rest of their lives.

Society must do much more to protect vulnerable people from scams. Government should ensure every household adopts some 'golden rules’ when any call is received from a source asking for payment details. Older people need much firmer guidelines as to how to respond appropriately to scams/cold callers. Much more Government information is required by way of focus advertisement using mediums that vulnerable people can access. Working with other agencies such as supermarkets, transport companies, broadcasters, GP practices etc to ensure consistent messages as to how to deal with scam calls, would mean that far fewer older people have to suffer the indignity of poverty in the final years of their life.

As a new Prime Minister arrives in Downing Street, CCFTV would urge her Communities Minister to prioritise this matter, given the countless lives scammers destroy every day.