Scamming …………………… lets help stop this horrible crime!

Most of us respect the older population. We help look after our older relatives – enjoy their company – learn from their wisdom and try to make later life easier for them if we can. It’s just a natural part of family life for a lot of us. However one group of people only have contempt for our older folk – these are the criminal gangs hell bent on stealing as much money from as many older people as they can. Ruthless and determined these people are out and out criminals. Whilst scams generally never involve violence – don’t for one minute think these crimes do not have a devastating effect on their victims. We’ve had experience of older clients losing significant sums of money. Imagine how distressing that would be – money you have maybe saved over a long time – gone in a flash to someone you thought you trusted. The result often goes way beyond the financial – causing stress, depression , loss of confidence and often affecting the victims’ wider families too. We need to fight these criminals – old and young together. But you need knowledge of scams to be able to do this. A short article like this cannot begin even to touch on the myriad of scams out there targeting our older folk. Royal Bank of Scotland as programme sponsors, and STV, have teamed up to make a second series of “Stopping Scotland’s Scammers”. Watching that programme would be a great start point for learning some of the techniques the scammers use. Please tune in ………. find out all about this and think what part you might play in helping stop more older victims being fleeced by these criminals. The series airs for four weeks starting Friday 29th at 8 pm. We are starting our own social media campaign to support RBS and STV get the important messages out to families. Feel free to join in! David Borrowman Solicitors for Older People Scotland www.solicitorsforolderpeoplescotland.co.uk