Fraud

I’d originally started this blog in the depths of winter just after a rather nasty bug has led to an enforced period of rest and therefore a bit of bonus thinking time. I’d read an article or two about the cost of Fraud and the ever more sophisticated ways in which the bad guys were looking to part people from their money.

No real sizing of the problem in the content I saw – but it got me thinking again about the impact on “older” consumers. As a generalisation older/sometimes more vulnerable/more at risk and Age UK has highlighted a shocking looking number https://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2019/july/older-person-becomes-fraud-victim-every-40-seconds/

Clearly this is an issue bigger than 50+ but I’d suggest particularly worrying when targeting older/vulnerable people.

On a recent visit to see my mum she had 2 cold calls and a random door knocker (free roof inspection) on a weekday afternoon. She gets regular unsolicited phone calls Apparently this isn’t out of the norm for a weekday afternoon. Clearly such approaches work as there isn’t any sign of them being stopped by legislation/controls and those responsible must be making a living out of it. I’m not suggesting they are all criminals btw but if your business needs you to door knock on a weekday afternoon I’d suggest something may be up.

All of this got me thinking about one of my many grumbles – what on earth is being done about this? Regulation is pretty ineffective and there are stories galore of “older” people being conned. Even those entrusted to do the right thing very often do not https://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/fca-bans-pensions-adviser-jailed-for-2-1m-fraud/a1325781

There are people out there helping educate against different types of fraud/how to keep the bad guys away but nowhere near enough. I’d like to help push this agenda forwards and would love to talk to anyone interested in helping do this be it via education or more direct means.

Thanks for reading I’m Julian a Marketing consultant focused on helping business target and communicate with the ever growing over 50s Market. If you’d like to get in touch I can be reached at julian@greyafro.com