Here’s what almost nobody tells you about scam advice.
Practically all of it assumes you’ll be sharp when the call comes. Hang up. Don’t wire the money. Verify first. Good advice, every bit of it.
And every bit of it depends on you being at your best at the exact moment a professional criminal is working you.
You won’t always be at your best.
You’ll be exhausted. Or fighting a rotten cold. Or the phone rings 20 minutes after you got bad news about a friend. That isn’t a character flaw. That’s just having a life.
Scammers understand this better than you do. It’s the whole reason they manufacture urgency — they need you reacting instead of thinking.
So here’s a better plan. Instead of betting your savings on your own judgment holding up forever, spend one Saturday afternoon closing the routes scammers use to get at your money.
Set it up once. It keeps working on your worst day.
The stakes aren’t theoretical. Americans 60 and older reported losing $2.4 billion to fraud in 2024, roughly four times what that group reported in 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s latest report to Congress.
And because most fraud never gets reported at all, the FTC figures the real cost to older adults that year could run as high as $81.5 billion.
I got my CPA in 1981 and spent a decade as an investment advisor before I ever pointed a TV camera at a con artist. In all those years, I’ve never seen a defense that beats this one: make the crime mechanically impossible instead of hoping you’ll spot it.
Here are seven moves. None of them costs a dime.
1. Freeze your credit at all three bureaus
This is the big one, and it’s still the most-skipped step in personal finance.
A freeze locks your credit file so nobody can open a new account in your name — not even someone holding your Social Security number. Federal law made freezes free nationwide in 2018.
You have to do it three separate times, at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, because they’re competitors and there’s no master switch. Budget about 15 minutes total.
The bureaus must place a freeze within one business day, and lift it within one hour when you ask online or by phone, the FTC says.
Two myths worth killing. A freeze doesn’t touch your credit score. And it doesn’t affect the cards already in your wallet.
Learn more in “How to Freeze Your Credit for Free and Stop Hackers Cold.”
2. Block electronic access to your Social Security record
Fewer than one person in a hundred knows this exists.
Call Social Security at 800-772-1213 and ask to block electronic access to your record. Once it’s blocked, the agency says nobody — including you — can view or change your information online or through its automated phone system.
That shuts down a favorite trick: a thief logging into your account and rerouting your monthly benefit to a different bank.
The trade-off is real. You give up your own online access, so changes mean a phone call to a live person or a trip to the office. If you check your account weekly, this one may not be for you.
Get more details in “How to ‘Lock’ Your Social Security Number — and Why You Should.”
3. Get an identity protection PIN from the IRS
Tax refund theft is the one crime here you can’t see coming. You don’t find out until your return bounces because somebody already filed using your Social Security number.
An identity protection personal identification number, or IP PIN, is a six-digit code known only to you and the IRS. No PIN, no accepted return. It’s that simple.
It used to be reserved for confirmed identity theft victims. Now the IRS opens it to anyone with a Social Security number or taxpayer ID number who can verify their identity.
Sign up through your online account at IRS.gov, and choose continuous enrollment so it renews automatically instead of making you re-up every January. Here’s the step-by-step guide to getting your PIN.
4. Lock your phone number against SIM swaps
Your cellphone number is the skeleton key to your financial life. Every code your bank texts you lands there.
In a SIM swap, a criminal talks your carrier into moving your number to a phone they control. Suddenly those security codes go to them, and your two-factor authentication is working for the other team.
Under Federal Communications Commission rules, your carrier has to offer you a free lock that blocks SIM changes and number transfers until you turn it off.
Call your carrier and ask for it by name. It takes one phone call and it protects every account that texts you a code.
Quick gut-check — if your money advice is coming from random online influencers, you’re playing a dangerous game. I’ve been a CPA since 1981 and writing about money since before the internet existed. Sign up for the free Money Talks Newsletter and get expert advice that’s been tested by time.
5. Name a trusted contact on every investment account
This is the most powerful item here and the one almost nobody uses.
Under Financial Industry Regulatory Authority rules, brokerages have to make a reasonable effort to get the name of a trusted contact for your account. Most people wave it off. Don’t.
Here’s why it matters. A separate FINRA rule lets your firm slam a temporary hold on money leaving your account when it reasonably suspects you’re being financially exploited.
The hold runs up to 15 business days and can be extended. That’s the pause that gives your family time to reach you before the wire clears.
Your trusted contact can’t trade for you or move a dollar. All they can do is answer the phone when your brokerage calls because something looks wrong.
Add one to every account you own. Call the firm or update it online.
6. Turn on low-dollar alerts everywhere
Most people set account alerts at $500 or $1,000, which is backward.
Thieves test a stolen card with small charges first, watching to see whether anyone notices. Catch the $4 test and you never see the $4,000 purchase.
Set the trigger low — I’d go with $1 — on every checking account, savings account and credit card you have. You’ll get a few extra texts. You’ll also know within seconds when something’s wrong.
While you’re in there, ask your bank what it does about fraudulent transfers now. The rules recently shifted in consumers’ favor: 5 Ways a New Banking Rule Can Help You Stop Scammers From Emptying Your Account.
7. Stop the pre-screened credit offers
Every pre-approved card offer in your mailbox is a loaded gun pointed at your credit.
Someone swipes it from your box, fills it out with a change of address and now there’s a card in your name going somewhere you’ve never lived.
Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 888-567-8688 to shut the offers off for five years. Want it permanent? Start online, then sign and mail back the form they send you.
The FTC says opting out has no effect on your ability to get credit or insurance when you actually want it.
What this does and what it doesn’t
Let me be straight with you, because plenty of headlines out there won’t be.
Nothing eliminates fraud. Not this list, not any list. A criminal who talks you into wiring your own money doesn’t need your credit file or your phone number.
What these seven moves do is strip away the routes that don’t require your cooperation, and buy you time on the ones that do.
You still need the basics. Never act on an inbound call, text or email. Hang up and dial the number on the back of your card. It also pays to know the cons that target older adults most often.
And pick a family code word, because a cloned voice sounds exactly like your grandchild now.
But those defenses need you alert. These seven don’t.
That’s the whole point. One Saturday, seven phone calls and web forms, and your money stays protected on the day you’re too sick, too tired or too rattled to protect it yourself.
Block off the afternoon. Make the coffee. Start with the credit freeze.
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