Best Identity Theft Protection for Seniors: How to Keep Your Parents Safe

It’s not exactly a news flash that the online world is full of pitfalls.  A lot of sites (including this very blog) focus heavily on privacy and online security, and for good reason: in 2022 the FTC recorded over 5 million reports of online crimes and scams, including 2.4 million cases of fraud and 1.1 million of identity theft.  Total financial losses added up to a whopping $8.8 billion, and it’s safe to assume that many other incidents went undetected or unreported. 

A lot of these criminals target seniors, because of the popular perception that seniors are less tech-savvy and likely to have more money to pillage.  That’s not necessarily always the case, but there’s enough truth in it to be worrisome if the seniors in question are your own parents. Let’s take a look at the best identity theft protection for seniors, and the steps you can take to protect your loved ones.  And if you are the senior parent, you can cut out the middleman and follow our tips yourself!

Seniors and Scams: Myth vs. Reality

Many (but not all) older people do struggle to keep up with technology because it changes so rapidly.  When you add in age-related concerns such as dementia and cognitive impairment, and chronic diseases like Parkinson’s that affect cognition, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to worry about how well your parents relate to the online world.  The good news is that real-world statistics from the FTC don’t entirely bear this out.  Of consumers reporting an incident in 2022, 43 percent of those between 20 and 29 lost money to scammers, compared to just 23 percent of those aged 70 to 79.  The demographic with the most reported losses overall was those between 30 and 39. 

Sadly there’s bad news to go along with the good.  While seniors accounted for a lower percentage of the total reports and total dollar losses, the losses per incident were highest among the elderly.  Every demographic from 20-somethings to 60-somethings reported average losses in the mid-$500 to mid-$600 range, but that soared to $1000 for 70-somethings and over $1600 for those 80 and up.  And of course those are averages, so some lose significantly more. 

Ordinary scams pose a definite threat to seniors, and we’ve written about them previously (you can look here, here, and here for a few useful examples).  Those can be costly but the big score, from a criminal’s perspective, is identity theft.  Scams are limited to “what the market will bear” and seniors are often frugal.  A successful identity theft, on the other hand, could allow criminals to plunder your parents’ life savings, steal their house, or defraud them of government benefits.  The potential losses are much more significant, and much more damaging. 

Identity Theft and Seniors: Threats to Watch For

There’s a case to be made that the best identity theft protection for seniors is an informed and involved family member, and there’s a great deal you can do proactively to protect your parents.  They’re vulnerable to all the same tactics as the rest of us (phishing messages, scam calls, etc) but are potentially more vulnerable in a couple of specific ways as well. 

Here’s a partial list of things to watch out for, and ways you can provide a measure of protection:

Phishing Texts or Emails

Scammers will never stop using these until they stop working, and sadly that’s not likely to happen (if anything, new AI tools like ChatGPT will make them even more effective).  

What you can do: Coach your parents to never click a link or call back a number from one of these messages.  When in doubt they can forward the messages to you.  With their permission, you might even set up a filter to forward non-personal emails to you automatically.

Incautious Social Media Use

Oversharing on social media isn’t confined to seniors, by any means — if anything, the young are more prone to it — but careless posts can give away a lot of sensitive information, helping scammers guess passwords and fill in the blanks. 

What you can do: Walk your parents through their social media privacy settings, and audit their friends and followers to weed out any accounts that look sketchy or that your parents can’t vouch for. 

Physical Mail Theft

Seniors often prefer to receive their bills, statements, and other money/identity-related documents in paper form.  This means that dumpster-diving criminals (or unscrupulous staff, if they’re in a care setting) can easily retrieve personal and account information from the trash. 

What you can do: Set up your parents to receive all of their statements and official correspondence in electronic form.  For old bills, statements, and other documents, use a cross-cut shredder to destroy them before they’re discarded.  Don’t forget about the labels on pill bottles, which should be removed and destroyed as well (they contain useful information). 

Physical Theft of ID

Lost or stolen ID is a major threat to your parent’s identity.  If they still drive they’ll need their driver’s license, but they shouldn’t routinely carry other key forms of ID (their social security card, medical insurance cards, etc).  Those can expose your parents to things like benefits fraud, tax fraud, and medical identity theft, which are especially damaging. 

What you can do: Help your parents get into the habit of taking only what they need with them.  Make photocopies of things like medical insurance/Medicaid/Medicare cards, and store the originals in a safe place. Additionally, use an indelible marker to black out all but the last four digits of the SSN on those cards. 

Home Title Theft

This is a big one.  It can happen at any time but most often during times of transition: when a parent moves into care; when they downsize and get ready to sell; or when your parents pass away and you’re dealing with estate issues.  Criminals can simply file a fake deed at minimal cost and presto, on paper they’re the new owner of your parents’ house (and yes, it’s a lot easier than it really should be).  Now they can sell it or rent it or both, often to multiple people, then take the money and skip town. 

What you can do: Title insurance has been around for a long time, but most policies won’t protect you in this instance (they’re to protect the buyer, not the home’s legitimate owner).  Some insurers now offer policies to protect against title theft if you ask for it, and there are also title-theft monitoring services that will keep watch for loans against your parents’ property or any changes to the title or mortgage.  You can do this yourself if you have the time, but you might prefer to pay and delegate those tasks. 

Abuse of Trust

This is the biggest and thorniest threat, because by its nature it’s people you trust — caregivers, family members, your parents’ longtime accountant or lawyer — who are responsible.  Everyone on that list has access to your parents’ personal information, and sometimes their financial accounts as well.  That means they’re uniquely situated to steal your parents’ identity and siphon away their net worth in dozens of ways from unobtrusive to egregious. 

What you can do: This is a tough one, because family dynamics play into it.  If your parents are still fully lucid, discuss this potential with them.  If at all possible, arrange with their bank, credit card issuers, and investment brokers to have trusted family members or advisors (ideally at least two) be automatically informed in the event of significant disbursements, account changes, or new accounts being opened. 

You should also make plans against the day that they’re no longer capable of handling their own affairs, arranging a power of attorney for one or more family members.  If there’s an existing power of attorney in place, you should negotiate some form of family or professional oversight of the person exercising that power (even if it’s you; it prevents you from accusations of bias or misconduct if things should get ugly within the family). 

Additional Ways to Protect Your Parents Against Identity Theft

Aside from those threats, there are some more general ways you can help your parents protect against identity theft.  Most of them boil down to the same kind of common-sense steps we should all be taking for ourselves, as well.  Examples include: 

• Using a password manager: Most of us are prone to using the same handful of passwords everywhere, which is a flat-out gift to scammers.  Set up your parents with a good password management app, and help them pick a password they’ll for sure remember for that app (you should have it too, as an estate tool and fail-safe against their memories letting them down).  Now you can create strong passwords for all of their accounts, but they’ll only have one to remember.
• Placing a credit freeze: Your parents’ credit situation should be pretty stable at this time of life, so there’s minimal downside to placing a credit freeze.  It’s only a minor inconvenience for them if they do need additional credit at some point, but it’ll thwart identity thieves trying to exploit their credit rating. 
• Putting them on the Do Not Call registry: Putting your parents’ number on the Do Not Call registry weeds out most legitimate callers, so they can safely ignore any incoming calls that seem disturbing or dubious.  You can also coach them to say “My son/daughter/lawyer handles that for me, call them” (which will usually end the conversation if it’s a scammer). 
• Installing an ad blocker on their devices’ browsers: A lot of identity theft is fueled by bogus advertisements, popups, and trackers.  Installing an ad blocker on their browsers will hide those from your folks, and as a benefit it’ll make their browsing a lot more enjoyable.  Bear in mind that some sites may not work properly as a result, so you may need to do a bit of tweaking in the first few weeks.  If you’re technically inclined you might also consider setting up a VPN on their home network to provide an added measure of privacy and protection. 
• Searching your parents’ names, phone numbers, addresses, and email accounts periodically with Spokeo: If you see unknown phone numbers associated with their identity, or someone else’s name showing up as the current owner of their property, or social media accounts that clearly aren’t your parents’ doing, those are all huge red flags that there’s something sketchy going on. 
• Taking advantage of security options offered by their accounts: This is another big one.  Most banks, credit card carriers, and other important accounts offer some form of optional fraud detection, either for free (they’re often on the hook for losses, so it’s to their advantage) or at a minimal cost.  You can lock the door against tax fraud by having the IRS issue each parent an Identity Protection PIN.  If your parents can handle the added step, set up 2-factor authentication for their accounts wherever it’s offered.  Phone carriers typically offer some form of call-blocking or spam/scam call detection, and their email provider may offer enhanced phishing protection.  Those are all helpful. 

The Best Identity Theft Protection for Seniors (Third-Party Version)

That last option, of using the features provided by third parties, can be taken a lot further.  As we said earlier, the best identity protection for seniors might be an actively involved family member, but there’s also a case to be made for delegating a lot of that work to professionals. 

For example, if you install the Spokeo app on your parents’ Android devices (or a comparable product on Apple devices) it can often identify dubious calls in real time before your parents answer them.  It can also block that number from calling again. 

Finally, consider how your parents could benefit from Spokeo Protect, our identity theft protection service.  It monitors things like their SSN, driver’s license, credit report, and financial accounts for unusual or illicit activity, and even prowls the shady online marketplaces where identities are bought and sold.  Knowing identity thieves are poised to exploit your parents means you can act quickly to protect them, and — in a worst-case scenario — Spokeo can provide skilled help with that.  

Whether you opt to take a DIY approach or lean into the skills (and sophisticated tools) of professionals, the steps outlined here will go a long way toward protecting your parents against identity theft.  That should help you — and them — sleep better at night.