Any suggestions to keep senior safe when a stranger/bogus caller knocks on door?

I had the same problem.My Grandmother would unlock the door,and just yell out for whoever knocked,to come on in.I heard some one in the house,and went to see who came by,it was 3 men wanting to do a carpet demonstration.She was telling them how she was a widow,and that I was divorced etc.After that incident,I put Beware of dog signs on all the doors,and left 2 of the dogs inside,if I had to go to the back of the house.Afterwards,when she told them to come in,they would stay out and keep knocking.She was just too trusting of everyone.

I can't offer any good suggestions, but can add that my mom went further and further in the direction of opening her home. First she took down all the curtains. She lived in a wooded secluded area, so no one could really see in when they drove by, but they could see her lights. That concerned me tremendously, because she lived alone, but... she had NO fear! (could be she was also a bit careless, not smart... I don't want to say anything bad about her at this point).

Then she would also leave her doors unlocked. We constantly asked her to lock them. She didn't want to have to get up to unlock the doors for us when we arrived so she told us as soon as she knew we were coming she would unlock.

Sadly, she passed away in her sleep at the age of nearly 93. I asked her a few years ago, what would her greatest words of advice be to me. She thought for a few moments and told me never to worry. I said really? I could hardly believe that was it. She said... seriously, she worried a lot throughout her whole long life and everything turned out OK in the long run. So, she repeated, never worry.

Well, I still find it hard to believe and hard to do. I think we all need to be careful and smart about things. So, I applaud all of those who are still trying to protect your homes. Just wanted to share this one story of how my dear mom's mind worked in the end of her life.

She welcomed everyone and got very energetic when anyone came around to visit, she mostly loved chatting with handsome men...

My worries are not so much with strangers coming to the door, although, I KNOW she would answer to anyone. My mom's hard to control behavior is answering the phone and giving out her SSN to whomever the caller is and any other personal information. Also, last month I had to block her ability to call 411 for information for the same number over and over and ones that I had in her personal little green book. Our phone service charges $2 for every 411 call.

George2short - if you are telling us your mother lives alone and she has dementia, she needs to have someone there full-time or move her to a safe living arrangement. Hoping that nothing will happen to her is not realistic. There are men raping 90+ yr. old women. Yes, you should be worried about her safety!

One more thing..you could mount one of the security cameras in clear view with a sign saying You are being Filmed.
That should scare off the bad guys!

I told my Mom that anyone who needs to come over has a key - anyone who knocks or rings the bell that has not called first & we are expecting is NOT welcome unless I am home to open the door - PERIOD. Does that stop her? Nope. Like someone above, she has said "i just open it a little to see who it is..." Ugh.

After a few incidents of the same here (Mom opening the door to anyone who knocked) I told her that anyone who needs to ring the doorbell is someone she is NOT to open the door to unless she is expecting a visitor. If it's important they will come back or leave a slip at the door (such as UPS, post office, etc.) that I will deal with later, and for her to not answer. Anyone who is welcome here either already has a key to the house or will personally call before visiting. I reminded her that times have changed, and it is just not safe to answer the door to strangers anymore. She knows this, yet does it anyways. She's in a SNF now - hopefully for the long-haul - but if she comes back home, this is one issue we will need to address again. Maybe a health department "Quarantine" sign on the front door would help ward off would-be scammers & intruders...haha! ;)

My husband has early onset Lewy Body Dementia, and he seems to still be able to do the things he has always done, but cannot learn new things. Maybe older people with dementia are not afraid of strangers, because they are from a time, when people trusted everyone, didn't lock their doors, and invited strangers in. My husband is from a younger generation, always lived in a large city, and went to the police academy, so he locks everything always and constantly checks the locks. So I don't think even in his dementia he would let a stranger in.

We also have an alarm on the house, with a "stay" setting, so if you don't disarm it and open the door it makes a hideous noise. I have a BIG note on the door to remind him to "turn off alarm." My husband doesn't know how to use the alarm and it scares him, but the note always makes him stop and ask if the alarm is on, if he wants to go outside.

One thing that helps me feel safe, when I have to open the door, is our heavy duty screen door with glass panels that can be slid up or down for air, but you can open the main door to see who, and yet it is still strong enough to stop an intruder. Maybe opening one door would be enough to satisfy the automatic urge to open a door, and they would stop at the second.

I accidently discovered another thing, when we recently installed a fence for our dog. He is never left out doors alone, but it seems that solisters see the fence and dog toys and are afraid that there is a dog out of sight that might be vicious, so they have started leaving their flyers in the gate. If you have a fence, then maybe a "beware of dog" sign.

These are things that work for now for us, but may not in the future as we travel this twisty road of dementia.

Signs didn't work for mom. She reads it, repeats the written rules and then promptly (not defiantly... just not connecting in her brain) breaks it - all in the same minute. Opening the door to strangers as well as giving away vital info on the phone was such a problem with my mom that we now have someone there 24/7. Mom is fast to the door, and she always "recognizes" them - even complete strangers, so if the caregiver cant physically beat mom to the door, they at least stand with mom at the open door and shoo away the solicitors. (My mom wrote a $7000 check to a man soliciting for magazine prescriptions... and never remembered doing it, yet the neurologist says she does not have dementia!) For my mom, we saw that it was not only hopeless for us, but it was very discouraging to her for us to keep telling her the rules about answering the door... bc she was always forgetting and thus failing daily... that cant be fun. So we stopped nagging and now just try to protect her the best we can with caregivers and relatives. Hope you find a solution that works for you. Be safe.

We do all of our care giving at home and have a deadbolt on the door that requires a key to unlock from inside or out. We keep it locked and keep the spare key in a locked security box while keeping the other key on one of us. We also keep the answering machine to "Do Not Disturb". This way, people can leave a message but no one we are caring for would be able to know it was ringing and answer and give out info.