Helping an Older Relative Spot Scams: A Family Guide (UK)

Product details

A guide for adult children and family members who want to help a parent or older relative deal with scam calls, texts and messages.

Age UK says being scammed can happen to any of us. This guide isn't about taking over someone's phone or their money. It's a plan you put together as a family: a shared way to pause and check, a phone set-up you do side by side, and a short list of numbers to keep by the phone.

What's inside

• Starting the conversation. Ways to raise the subject without blame, drawing on Age UK's and the Home Office Stop! Think Fraud campaign's advice for families.
• Scams to talk through together. The common UK patterns, from "your bank" calls and "Hi Mum" texts to parcel texts and AI voice cloning, each with a simple check.
• The family "pause and check" agreement. A fill-in agreement everyone signs up to, including a family safe phrase, as recommended by Stop! Think Fraud and Age UK.
• Setting up their phone. Step-by-step settings for iPhone and Android, taken from Apple's, Google's and Samsung's own help pages, plus the landline and network options Ofcom lists. Where we couldn't confirm a setting, we say so rather than guess.
• Where to report a scam. 7726, report@phishing.gov.uk, 159, Report Fraud, Police Scotland, the PSNI and Consumerline, each checked against the organisation's own website or a UK government page when this guide was written.
• Where to get support, including the Age UK Advice Line.
• A "who to call" card to fill in together.
• A one-page fridge sheet with the key steps, to print on its own.

Who it's for

Anyone helping a parent, grandparent or older relative in the UK. It's written to be read together, at their pace, with them staying in charge of their own phone and decisions.

What it isn't

It won't stop every scam, and it doesn't cover what to do after money has gone. It isn't legal, financial or police advice. Secordit isn't part of the government, the police, Age UK, Apple, Google, Samsung or any bank, and none of the organisations named here has reviewed this guide.

Format: a PDF guide, including a one-page fridge sheet to print on its own. It's self-serve: you read it and use it at home, together.