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Charley1960 Asked May 2019

My grandma has dementia and is being scammed. Can we take her phone away?

My grandma has dementia and is being scammed and is giving her whole check to a man she has never met sending I tunes cards money orders etc...


Are we able to take her phone away from her temporarily due to the situation and actions and threats to call local law enforcement due to misuse of cell phone?

worriedinCali May 2019
In some states it is illegal to take someone’s phone away. I see you are in California, so DO NOT take her phone away, because it is illegal and you could be charged with a felony. Before you take the phone away, I would look in to blocking the scammers phone numbers and other ways of limiting who can contact her by phone. There are settings on smart phones, like “do not disturb” that allow you to block all incoming calls and text messages except certain phone numbers. If your mom uses a cell phone, try out that feature & allow only friends and family to call.
Ahmijoy May 2019
I didn’t know it’s illegal to take away someone’s phone. In Ohio, I took my mom’s. I do know that these scammers use hundreds of phone numbers and you cannot block them all. I was getting calls from an insurance broker—every 15 minutes from 9AM to 10PM for over six weeks. Each time was a different number.

Maybe grandma just needs more supervision?
Ahmijoy May 2019
Charley, I read your other post but in this one you give more details. Who is threatening to call the police? Your grandma or you? And you know the police won’t come out just because someone isn’t using a phone the right way,right?

If grandma has dementia, she will not understand about being scammed. You need to remove the source of her communication—the phone. Tell her it got lost, the battery is dead, it’s broken, anything. And yes, this you should report to the police. Chances of them tracing the number aren’t good, but they may even try to run their own scam on the scammer.

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Ahmijoy May 2019
Duplicate question.

JoAnn29 May 2019
Do you have POA or someone in your family? Is she ever alone where she would need a phone? If not, then "lose" it. Or block the caller and block her from being able to call. I would go to the police and ask if there is anything you can do about the scammer.

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