September 13, 2026
Protecting an Older Relative From Prize Fakes
The goal is not to stop someone entering anything. It is to make the moment before paying feel normal to pause on.
Why the targeting happens
Older people are contacted disproportionately by prize fraud because they are more reachable by phone and post, more likely to answer, and often have savings within reach of a transfer. Some operations trade lists of people who responded once, which is why a single reply can be followed by a sustained wave. None of this reflects on the person contacted. It reflects a business model built around volume.
One rule, easy to remember
Complicated advice fails under pressure from a persuasive caller. A single sentence works better: no money and no numbers go out over the phone or by post for a prize, ever, without a phone call to you first. That call does not need to be a permission request. It just needs to insert a pause into a process built entirely on urgency.
Signs worth noticing from outside
Unusual trips to buy gift cards, a sudden secretiveness about phone calls or mail, new unfamiliar names mentioned as friends who need help, or a request to wire money urgently are all worth a gentle question rather than an accusation. None of these prove anything on their own, but together, or repeated, they are worth checking in about directly rather than letting pass unremarked.
Practical changes that help
Register the number on the national Do Not Call registry, which will not stop fraud but reduces the noise it hides in. Set the phone to screen unknown numbers. Agree that unsolicited post about winnings gets kept rather than answered, and looked at together. Ask the bank what protections they offer on the account, because many will flag or delay unusual outgoing transfers if asked.
Agree on the pause before it is needed
The best time to set up the one phone call rule is a calm afternoon, not the middle of an urgent-sounding call from someone claiming to be holding a prize. A short, specific agreement, call me before anything is sent, no matter how legitimate it sounds, made in advance is far easier to act on in the moment than a general sense that caution is a good idea.
If you are not nearby
Distance makes this harder but not impossible. A regular check-in call that includes a specific, low-key question about any recent prize contact, rather than assuming it would be mentioned unprompted, catches more than an open-ended how are you. A trusted neighbour or friend who can be a second point of contact is a reasonable backup where visits are infrequent.
Handle a loss without blame
Shame is the reason most of these are never reported, and a relative who expects to be scolded will hide the next one. Treat it as fraud committed against them rather than a mistake they made, because that is accurate. Report it at reportfraud.ftc.gov and contact the bank quickly, as speed matters most in the first days. For help finding local support services, 211 connects to assistance across the US.
This is not about restricting a life
The goal throughout all of this is inserting one habitual pause before money moves, not discouraging someone from entering promotions, answering the phone, or opening mail, all of which remain entirely their own decision to make. Overcorrecting into distrust of every call or every piece of post creates its own quiet cost, isolation and frustration, without actually making anyone safer. The narrow, specific rule works precisely because it leaves everything else alone.
A short version to actually say out loud
If it involves a prize and money moving from you, call me first, no exceptions, said plainly in a calm moment, does more real protective work than an hour of general warnings about fraud in the abstract. Simple, specific and repeatable beats thorough and forgettable every time this actually gets tested under pressure.
A conversation worth having more than once
A single conversation about this, however clear at the time, fades from memory the way any one-off warning does, so revisiting it occasionally, not as a lecture but as a quick check-in, keeps the agreed rule available in the moment it is actually needed rather than half-remembered from months earlier. Treating it as an ongoing, low-key part of staying in touch works better than a single serious talk.