Despicable - taking advantage of the elderly

I guess you’ve heard about the charities that sold the personal details of a dementia sufferer to conmen who then tricked him out of thousands of pounds?

And all because he forgot to tick a box (to say he did not want his details shared) after completing a charity’s survey.

As a result, former Army colonel Samuel Rae, who is 87, has been repeatedly targeted by rogue firms and has lost £35,000 through scams.

He was contacted 731 times after 88 charities and 12 scam firms got his details, according to a story in the Daily Mail.

It’s just despicable, isn’t it? But I can understand how some elderly people can be taken in. I believe there are a couple of reasons for this.

One is being lonely. Receiving phone calls and lots of mail can make vulnerable people feel in touch with the world.

As a volunteer for Silverline, the charity set up a couple of years ago by Esther Rantzen, I call a woman in Kent once a week, at a pre-arranged time for a chat.

It is apparent that she is a lovely, bubbly retired person but carers visiting twice a week for a couple of hours, a few phones calls every seven days from her daughter and my ramblings once a week don’t really add up to much in the way of social contact, communication and companionship. The lady is lonely.

Bet you didn't know I could ALMOST cross my legs?

The second reason is the fact that the older generation is much more trusting of people and often totally unaware of the dangers lurking in the post and at the end of a telephone.

Our family’s experience is nowhere near as harrowing, or costly, as Mr Rae’s but we do tend to be more proactive than some. It also helps, I guess, to have a cynical retired journalist in the fold.

Recently widowed Mil receives dozens of shopping catalogues. She loves reading them and loves getting the post each morning. But only yesterday we had to persuade her not to buy something she did not really want or need simply because her name would go into the hat to win a cash prize.

Touching wood, and other inanimate objects, she has never been scammed. But I like to think that’s because her family members are on the ball, always help her to complete the order forms and all (most?) have eyesight good enough to find the miniscule box you have to tick to say you don’t want your details shared.

Perhaps it is time to have a box that says tick here if you’d like us to share your details. Like that’s going to happen!

It’s lucky I don’t get out more.