Tools to Protect Aging Parents From Financial Fraud (Without Taking Over)

Your mom is sharp, independent and proud of handling her own finances. She’s also exactly who scammers target: she answers the phone, she’s polite, and she has savings. You want to protect her without making her feel watched or treated like a child.

That balance is possible. Banks, brokerages and phone makers now offer tools built for it: you get early warning, and your parent keeps the final say. Here’s what to set up, in order, and how to talk about it.

Why older adults are the top target

The numbers are stark. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, people 60 and older filed more than 201,000 complaints in 2025 and reported about $7.7 billion in losses, up 59% from 2024. The average reported loss was $38,500. Investment scams caused the biggest losses, followed by tech support scams and romance scams.

Scammers go after older adults because they’re more likely to have savings, home equity and retirement accounts, and because the scams that work best rely on trust and urgency: fake bank fraud departments, fake grandchildren, fake government agents. Kiosk scams are a growing part of it; see our guide to Bitcoin ATM scams.

Key takeaway: The goal isn’t to control your parent’s money. It’s to add a second set of eyes that sees trouble early, while your parent still makes the decisions.

Start with a conversation, not a takeover

Before you change any settings, talk. People accept protection far more readily when they help design it.

• Frame it as teamwork. “Scammers are targeting everyone our age and yours. Can we set up some alerts so we’d both know if something weird happens?”
• Share stories. Talk about scams friends or neighbors have run into. It makes the risk real without making it personal.
• Agree on a pause rule. Any urgent request for money, from anyone, waits 24 hours and gets a phone call to you first.
• Pick a family safe word for phone emergencies, as explained in our guide to AI voice cloning scams.
• Respect their privacy. Agree on what you’ll see (alerts, unusual activity) and what you won’t (every purchase).

The protection toolkit, from lightest touch to most control

Choose the lightest tool that covers the risk. Most families need the first 4 or 5.

Trusted contact person

A trusted contact is someone a financial firm may call if it suspects your parent is being exploited, can’t be reached, or may have health problems affecting their finances. The trusted contact can’t see balances or make transactions.

For brokerage accounts, FINRA Rule 4512 requires firms to make reasonable efforts to ask for a trusted contact when an account is opened or updated. Under FINRA Rule 2165, a firm that reasonably believes a senior investor is being exploited may place a temporary hold on a disbursement or transaction and must generally notify the trusted contact within 2 business days.

Many banks and credit unions offer trusted contacts too. A December 2024 interagency statement from federal and state regulators encouraged them, and noted that a trusted contact generally has no authority to view accounts or make transactions unless the account holder separately allows it. Ask each bank, brokerage and retirement plan your parent uses.

Shared alerts

Most banking apps let account holders send alerts to an extra phone number or email. Good choices:

• Withdrawals or transfers over a set amount, such as $500 or $1,000
• New payees added for bill pay or transfers
• Wire transfers of any size
• Changes to contact information or passwords
• Large cash withdrawals

These are the moves scammers push for. An alert lets you call your parent the same day. Our guide to banking app security settings shows where to find them.

View-only access

Some banks and brokerages let account holders grant read-only or view-only access to another person. You can see transactions but can’t move money. The CFPB has recommended read-only access for authorized third parties as one of the protections financial institutions can offer. If your parent’s bank doesn’t offer it, some third-party monitoring services provide a similar view by connecting to accounts with the account holder’s permission. Read their privacy and data-sharing terms before signing up.

Lock down credit and identity

Scammers who get your parent’s Social Security number can open new accounts. Two free steps block most of it:

1. Freeze their credit at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. It’s free and doesn’t affect existing cards. Our guide on how to freeze your credit walks through each bureau.
2. Get an IRS Identity Protection PIN. It stops someone from filing a fake tax return in their name.

Also consider opting them out of preapproved credit offers and removing their details from people-search sites, which scammers use to find targets. See how to remove your info from people-search sites.

Cut off the scammer’s main routes in

Most elder fraud starts with a phone call, text, email or pop-up. Reduce how many get through:

• Turn on built-in call screening and silence unknown callers on their phone. Our guide to stopping spam calls covers iPhone, Android and carrier tools.
• Set up their phone for safety, with larger text, fewer apps and contacts saved with photos. See how to set up a phone for a senior.
• Install your bank’s real number in their contacts as “Bank – real number.”
• Agree that you’ll help with tech problems so they never call a number from a pop-up. Our guide to helping aging parents with tech remotely explains safe screen sharing.

Legal tools for later: power of attorney and more

A durable power of attorney lets a chosen agent manage finances if your parent can’t. It’s best set up while your parent is healthy, with a lawyer or your state’s official form. The CFPB’s guide for agents explains that an agent is a fiduciary who must act in the person’s best interest, keep money separate and keep records, and that a parent who can still make decisions can revoke the authority at any time.

Be cautious with joint accounts. Adding a child as a joint owner can expose the money to that child’s creditors and complicate inheritance. A convenience signer or power of attorney often solves the same problem with fewer side effects. Talk to an elder law attorney before choosing. This is not legal advice.

Banks have legal room to act too. The federal Senior Safe Act of 2018 protects trained employees of banks, credit unions, brokerages and insurers who report suspected exploitation of older customers in good faith to regulators, law enforcement or adult protective services.

If you suspect fraud is already happening

Act fast; recovery chances drop with time.

1. Call the bank’s fraud line with your parent, using the number on their card.
2. Report it to the FBI at ic3.gov and the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
3. Call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-372-8311 (1-833-FRAUD-11), run by the Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime, for help with next steps.
4. Contact adult protective services in their state if someone they know is exploiting them.
5. Freeze credit and change passwords on email and financial accounts.

Our guide on how to report a scam lists the agencies in more detail.

Where to start: a 1-afternoon setup plan

1. Have the conversation and agree on the pause rule and a safe word.
2. Together, call or log in to each bank and brokerage and add you (and ideally a second person) as trusted contacts.
3. Set alerts for large withdrawals, wires, new payees and contact changes, copied to your phone.
4. Ask about view-only access.
5. Freeze credit at all 3 bureaus and request an IRS Identity Protection PIN.
6. Turn on call screening on their phone and save the bank’s real number.
7. Schedule a visit with an elder law attorney about a durable power of attorney.

The bottom line

You don’t need to take over your parent’s finances to protect them. A trusted contact, shared alerts, view-only access, a credit freeze and fewer scam calls give you early warning, and your parent stays in charge. Set it up together, keep it respectful, and revisit it once a year or whenever their health or living situation changes.

Sources

• FBI IC3: 2025 Elder Fraud Report — complaints, losses and top scam types for people 60 and older
• FINRA: FAQs on rules relating to financial exploitation of senior investors — Rule 4512 trusted contacts and Rule 2165 temporary holds
• Interagency Statement on Elder Financial Exploitation (December 2024) — trusted contacts and holds at banks and credit unions
• CFPB: Recommendations for financial institutions on preventing elder financial exploitation — alerts, withdrawal limits and read-only access
• CFPB: Managing Someone Else’s Money, help for agents under a power of attorney — agent duties and revocation
• US Department of Justice Elder Justice Initiative: Find help or report abuse — National Elder Fraud Hotline