Jenny’s 87 and has dementia. But she’s been cheated out of £5,000 by a stream of pushy salesmen flogging things she’ll never need

SARAH McDonald’s 87- year- old mum Jenny has early stage dementia. But for t he time being Jenny’s physical health is good enough for her to live independently in sheltered accommodation. While Jenny’s home arrangements ensure a high level of physical protection they do not shield her from the torment of cold calls and hard-selling online, by post or over the phone – a scourge that has led to thousands of pounds being drained from her bank account since the condition took hold.

Daughter Sarah has spent months trying to sort out a tangled mess of unwanted financial products and services that sales people have persuaded her mum to take out as her condition has developed. Fortunes have been spent on items that she didn’t need or in some cases never received. Sarah says: ‘My conservative estimate is that she had lost more than £5,000 by the time we realised what was going on.’

The family’s main frustration is that they have had to spend too many hours sorting out these problems rather than focusing on more important issues that could improve Jenny’s quality of life.

One of the biggest traps has been charitable contributions.

Sarah says: ‘Mum has always given to charity. But she now responds to anything that comes through the door or any phone calls and often makes the same donation multiple times as she can’t remember what she has done.

‘She has been spending £300 to £500 per month on charity contributions. Some will be to legitimate charities and some are probably fraudulent.’

Jenny has often used her credit card when signing up to make regular donations. By doing so she has unwittingly set up so-called continuous payment authorities. These allow organisations to keep taking payments in perpetuity and to raise the amounts taken if they want to.

Unless you instruct the company or your bank to stop making the monthly payments ahead of the renewal date, they automatically get renewed – again and again. Over the past year, The Mail on Sunday has campaigned fiercely against such payment traps.

Sarah says: ‘We can’t seem to cancel these authorities online. And given the erratic and repetitive nature of Mum’s contributions, we can’t tell what of her spending is due to a continuous payment authority or what is being triggered by her.

‘We don’t get enough identifying information on her statements to contact the organisations.’

It was also discovered that Jenny had taken out more than one kitchen appliance policy. Sarah says: ‘Her kitchen appliances, which are neither new nor smart were all insured twice and when we called to cancel them, Mum kept getting chase-up letters and marketing material – and she signed up again. This insurance has cost her £60 per month and looking back this has been the situation for more than four years so she has paid far more than the value of the items. She had insurance for a dishwasher which she doesn’t own. When she had a car, it was insured twice.’

Another trap for many are funeral plans – where lump sum premiums are paid towards a policy designed to pay out enough to cover the cost of a funeral. These are promoted heavily, including via emotive adverts on daytime television. Sarah says: ‘We think Mum investigated t hese pl ans herself in response to advertising on television or in magazines targeting older people. One company sent people around to her flat which really amounts to pressure selling and they took a deposit on the spot of between £100 and £200.’

Then there are the energy companies that constantly prod customers into switching supplier. Sarah says: ‘Mum switched to a provider that set up a direct debit for twice the amount of her previous supplier. The company didn’t make contact until the switch was complete so I had no opportunity to stop it. She had given them an incorrect email which they realised but they didn’t try to contact her by post. I’m currently in the process of moving her to another provider.’

Her mum has also been a victim of outright mis-selling. Sarah says: ‘Mum was sold a drainage plan for £180 a year. But she lives in sheltered housing and isn’t responsible for home maintenance.’

THE company i nvolved, Integra Home Solutions, which Sarah has phoned on three occasions since the end of September and was twice told that a refund was about to be made or had been processed – has gone to ground with no payment received. Both a free phone number for the company and another number found by The Mail on Sunday went only to a generic answer machine message – with our calls not returned. Trading Standards has received several complaints about the company and

plans to investigate.

Meanwhile, insurer Integra Insurance Solutions has been forced to put a note on its website stating it is not connected to IHS and that anyone with a complaint against them should contact Citizens Advice or the Financial Conduct Authority.

Sarah says it has been a frustrating battle against the odds to get things sorted – not helped by the hard-sell techniques that someone with dementia struggles to resist.

Sarah says: ‘ If someone tells Mum, whether verbally or in a letter, email or advertisement that she should buy something to improve her peace of mind or make life easier for her or her family then she will sign up. This is preying on her feelings of anxiousness and vulnerability.’

Even the legal protection of a cooling-off period of usually 14 days seems a hopeless safety net. She says: ‘Often companies seem to only follow up by email or post at the end of this period so it is too late to cancel. And if something is a scam, they already have your money anyway and you’re at their mercy as to whether they refund or not.’

Though many companies say they don’t sell to people they consider vulnerable or to those with dementia, sufferers can be hard to spot.

Sarah describes this as a ‘grey area’ as Jenny is articulate even now and would pass such an assessment. She says: ‘If the caller spoke to her ten minutes later they would realise she had no recollection of the earlier conversation.’

To protect Jenny, her family has taken several steps, i ncluding reducing the amount of money in her current bank account.

They have also upgraded her telephone call blocking system to a system called Truecall which only allows chosen numbers to come through while family vet new callers – they are given a message to contact the family to explain why they are calling. Family can also see what calls are coming in or out over the internet.

Sarah says: ‘I’ve blocked all outgoing numbers beginning 08 in case Mum responds to an advert.’

She adds: ‘Mum has had a BT callblocking system for a long time which intercepts all but known callers and asks her if she wants to take the call.

‘Since she has got more confused, she accepts all calls because she can’t really cope with the system and the decision making it involves.’ Jenny receives about 15 calls a week from unrecognised numbers. None of these callers has contacted Sarah for permission to speak to her mum.

Sarah hopes her action plan has worked. She says: ‘Overall, I think we’ve been lucky – so far, touch wood. She could have lost all her money.’

Emma Bould, of the Alzheimer’s Society, says it should not just be down to the families to protect vulnerable people like Jenny. She says: ‘Companies also have a duty to safeguard people affected by dementia so they aren’t sold services they don’t need or want.’

The society runs an initiative called Dementia Friends. Bould says: ‘Through this campaign we help companies and staff to learn about dementia and how they can play their part in supporting customers.

‘Something as simple as having a safeguarding procedure clearly communicated to all customer-facing staff can make a real difference to people living with dementia and their quality of life, so they can continue to live well in their community.’

Martyn James, of complaints service Resolver, admits it is hard for staff to know if someone has dementia. But he says: ‘They should flag up if they have any concerns about a regular customer’s health if there’s nothing on file – particularly if there are suspicious or highvalue money transactions.

‘Needless to say, as more counter services and branches are being phased out, it will become harder for companies to provide such a personal service and support for people with dementia.’