How to protect elderly parents with dementia from scam texts on iPhone

Source Domain: www.foxnews.com

Scam texts are annoying for everyone. For older adults with memory issues, they can become financially disastrous. Rob from Kennesaw, Georgia, is dealing with that exact situation. His mom uses her iPhone for nearly everything, and scam texts keep pulling her into links, purchases and political donation pages. His story shows why this problem needs more than another reminder to “be careful.”

Here’s what Rob asked us:

“My mom is 81 years old with mild dementia. She uses her iPhone for everything and gets bombarded with texts all day from scams and political campaigns. Last year, I found that she had given $25 to a campaign, and over about two months, they charged more than $5,000 across two cards. Fortunately, I disputed the charges and got the money refunded. The problem is, the texts keep coming. Every couple of weeks, she clicks something and buys a service she does not need. She tells me she does not remember doing it, but I can see the texts and browser history. I already have the new iOS text filter on, but she opens the filtered texts and starts looking through them. I am so frustrated. Is there a way to stop all texts except known contacts, or are there any other ideas?”

Rob, I get why you’re frustrated. You are doing the right thing by watching the accounts, disputing charges and trying to keep your mom safe. But with mild dementia involved, reminders only go so far. She may truly have no memory of clicking a link or buying something.

That means the phone needs more guardrails. The goal is to make risky texts harder to see, risky links harder to tap and surprise charges harder to complete. You do that by tightening the phone, the carrier account, the payment setup and the bank alerts.

Let’s walk through the settings and safeguards that can help protect her while still letting her use the phone for the people and services she actually needs.

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