Protecting your parents

Most of what gets written about voice scams lives online, in articles like this one. The people most at risk are often the ones not scrolling past it. They're not naive. The rules just changed, fast, and nobody sat them down and explained it.

So sit them down. It's a short conversation and it does more than any app or gadget you could buy them.

The scams aimed at older folks spike around tax season, the holidays, and Medicare sign-up. I send a heads-up before each wave, so you can pass it along.

The ten-minute conversation

• Tell them, in one sentence, what's going on: scammers can now fake a loved one's voice on the phone to ask for money.
• Set up a family safe word together, right there. One word only the family knows.
• Give them one rule to hold onto: a call asking for money, in a hurry, means hang up and call the person back first.

That's the whole thing. You're not trying to make them scared of the phone. You're handing them one habit that makes the scam fall apart.

Have the talk and you've covered the big one. I'll send you the next thing worth forwarding to them, so you stay a step ahead of it.