Our recent poll uncovered a number of topics that the Care Community would like to speak to an expert about.
We are working to find experts on all of these topics so we can hold sessions throughout the year.
First up - Financial Scamming
Over half of over 65's surveyed by Age UK believed they have been targeted by scammers. Although financial scamming is more likely to happen to older people, anyone can fall victim - in fact, 3.2 million people a year do in the UK alone!
Those requiring care, or even overstretched carers can be particularly vulnerable and a target for those wishing to take advantage.
Professor Keith Brown is the Director of the National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work and Professional Practice at Bournemouth University.
In 2017, the university received the first ever Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) ‘Institutional Hero Award’ for its service and research into preventing financial scams.
Currently he is leading a research group looking at the impact of financial scamming on vulnerable citizens in the UK. He sits on the Department of Health Adult Safeguarding Advisory Board, the Joint Department of Health and Ministry of Justice National Mental Capacity Leadership forum and the Home Office Joint Financial task force.
The Q&A will be an online session hosed on the community. There will be a dedicated post here during the 1-2pm slot and all the questions and answers will be posted there.
Question for the Prof. My husband was diagnosed with dementia & Alzheimer's 4yrs ago. Shortly b4 he insisted we take equity release. A few months ago the agent contacted us re the possibility of a better interest. When l mentioned my husband's illness he got very cagey & said he could only discuss matters with my husband but suddenly decided we didn't qualify for an improved deal. Felt dodgy, why should l b excluded? SF
Sent off for some shoes the Chinese company send a cheap pair of trainers and they won’t refund my money is there anything I can do to get the money back?
Question for Professor Brown, how do you get your money back / or can you if you pay by credit card and the company concerned farms your work out to another company who is part of their group, and things go wrong?, plus you find out they are vastly overchargeing and giving incorrect information about how to set up a trust fund. I lost £2,544.90 to such a company and never did get the trust fund set up, this company never even applied to the land registry to set up the property trust, and the credit card company said they could not help for some legal reason that was not covered on this transaction.
I'm lucky; being naturally suspicious I don't get caught out often.I rarely shop online, except for secure sites, and I don't respond to mail or email I haven't requested.
When my husband had a road traffic accident causing a carotid artery dissection and then a stroke, he was left not only physically disabled but severely mentally impaired as well. He was 44 and is now 49. We had a number of rental properties and we had to sort out serious financial commitments as he never worked again. He fire-sold his properties and I went bankrupt and mine were auctioned.
He then got scammed by an options company called AA Options which was an absolute boiler room scam. I do not know how they got his business but when I told them to back off they constantly hounded him by way of phone to deposit more and more money at £250 a shot despite me telling them that he was severely disabled and unable to handle these situations competently. They just laughed in my face. I then contacted Trading Standards and they dealt with them and I managed to get the money back from his bank (Lloyds) because I felt they should have protected their customers with additional needs and they did not even though they knew his cognitive status. However, my question to you is what can be done about these online companies as this must be rife and is certainly not appropriate for financial dealings of any sort, let alone for severely mentally impaired members of the public?
I also have another question. My husband has a Nationwide account and credit card. He is severely mentally impaired and physically disabled. Nationwide offered him a credit card which he tried to use but he must have got the pin incorrect so they blocked a transaction at Tesco opticians. We called them and they said he had to get into the nearest Nationwide branch where the pin would be sorted out. He did this, on foot, to our local Ringwood branch. Once again, when trying to use it embarrassingly the pin was wrong again! Surely a bank is under obligation to assist with people in this category and at least phone them when they are trying to transact to help them over the phone? At the very least I would think. When we complained to Nationwide again, I took over and let them have it. They then DENIED HE EVER CAME TO THE BRANCH TO SORT THE PIN OUT and said they checked their cctv. However, we did not supply them with the exact date that he went into branch so they had no proof whatsoever that he did not go in. He had been in and they had allegedly sorted the pin out. I am fed up with this and have dealt with Jon Cuthill of the BBC who is trying to get a campaign up for forcing financial institutes to pay more due diligence to customers in this category. It is appalling and extremely distressing when we try and use their credit card now.
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