Don’t Fall Victim to a Scam

Michael Hughes 00:07
Hi everyone, and welcome to The Art of Aging, which is part of the Abundant Aging Podcast Series from United Church Homes. On this show, we look at what it means to age in America and in other places around the world with positive, empowering conversations to challenge, encourage and sly everyone everywhere to eight to the pundits. I’m Mike, your host, and we are pleased to be joined by Cameron Huddleston, who’s director of education and content for Carefull which is a financial planning and resource site designed to support family caregivers and those that they love. Cameron is an expert on financial planning for long term care home care needs, and is especially interested in helping to reduce the risks associated with scams and fraud, which is what we’re going to be talking about today. So welcome, Cameron.

Cameron Huddleston 00:48
Thanks so much for having me.

Michael Hughes 00:50
So, just for our listeners, the show today. What do you think about scams fraud, and it comes to older people, we can think about things that come from the outside world, like email scams, phone calls, things like that. And then we can also think about things that are related more to exploitation, family things, family exploitation, things like that. That’s a subject for a whole nother podcast. And I hope that Cameron, you might consider joining us for that. But today we’re talking about the first time scams and frauds, you might sort of come across from various people that are looking to take advantage of you. So my first question for you, Cameron, is, how did you find yourself in this world? I mean, how did you? How did you build up your expertise? I mean, you could be doing a lot of things. Why are you doing this?

Cameron Huddleston 01:34
I have been a personal finance journalist for more than 20 years. So I have written about scams and fraud. But I am really interested in this because I have been impacted and I have been impacted personally as a caregiver for my mother who had Alzheimer’s disease. I was her caregiver for more than 12 years. And for about the first half of that time period, I was her hands-on caregiver and then I did have to move her into a memory care facility. And during that time, I was her financial caregiver and oversaw her health care. But when she was still living at home alone in the very early stage of Alzheimer’s disease, she was almost scanned. She got a call one day, from someone claiming that she had won some sort of sweepstakes, and that she had to wire money to collect her prize. What’s interesting, she didn’t reach out to me, she called my uncle. And I got a call from my uncle saying, Something’s going on, your mom just called me asking how to wire money. So I rushed over to her house. Of course, she’s on the phone with this scammer, and she is 100% convinced that she has to wire money to collect a prize and so hang up the phone mom. And I’m trying to explain to her what’s going on. But it didn’t sink in because she was experiencing cognitive decline. And so her reasoning was impacted. And so I had to stay with her that day, and intercept those calls and hang up and sit there and persuade her that she had not won any sort of sweepstakes. And then I had to call a friend to come in while I went and picked up my own kids. And that was a wake up call for me that my mother could no longer live alone in her house as she needed to be with me, so I could keep an eye on her. But we were also having other issues with her writing checks left and right to every organization that asks for money. Some of these were legitimate charitable organizations, some not so legitimate. And so that was another challenge for me to prevent her from giving away all of her money in donations. And so that’s what really piqued my interest in helping protect older adults from scams. Of course, we can all become victims, but I feel like older adults, especially those who are experiencing any sort of cognitive decline, those who are living on their own are especially vulnerable and scammers know this and they will take advantage of it.

Michael Hughes 04:13
Yeah, because you know, um, just an incredible story, but sadly, I don’t think it’s an unusual story, right. I mean, this is, you know, this is frequent. There’s a, there’s scammers know, there’s a market for this. But I guess when you’re talking about you’re really talking about the first of somebody’s independence, right? I mean, when you’re going through that situation with your mom, and she thinks I have agency I can give my money to good works. I mean, there’s so much there right so much about her maybe wanting to feel purposeful and wanting to give back and all of those different things that she was doing with the best of intent. And then to realize that well, you know, the other people involved in this equation don’t Have that intent and I must be really just, that must be pretty punishing, right?

Cameron Huddleston 05:05
It isn’t the way I worked around it by helping her sort through her mail. And so I didn’t tell her mom, you can’t make donations, when I did I was there to intercept all of those solicitations. And you know, I simply told her, Hey, let me help you go through the mail, I can get it for you, we’ll start the junk from the bills. And so I would just gather those patients and toss them before she could ever get them. And it was easier that way. And especially if you’re dealing with someone who is experiencing any sort of cognitive decline, you want to choose the path of least resistance, because you cannot reason with someone in the same way as you would reason with someone who is not experiencing any cognitive decline. And so it was just easier for me to take those solicitations and toss them in the trash.

Michael Hughes 05:59
Well, I’m really glad that we opened with a story like that, because it helps us set the stage for just all the different things that are out there that we want to talk about and touch on. And of course, we’re not going to get to everything. But hopefully it will be able to send the right signals to our listeners so that you can maybe work ahead and avoid some of these scams and frauds that are out there. But first of all, you are with Carefull, as Carefull with two L’s at the end. Just briefly, can you just tell me what Carefull is and how it works?

Cameron Huddleston 06:25
Yes, so Carefull is a digital platform. And it provides account monitoring, you can link your bank accounts, your credit card accounts, your investment accounts, it’s going to monitor those accounts 24/7 for unusual transactions, signs of fraud, and money mistakes that are common to older adults. It also provides credit and identity monitoring up to a million dollars in identity theft insurance, we have a digital vault where you can store important financial and legal documents, that vault also includes a password manager so it can generate passwords and store them securely. And the way it works is that older adults can sign up. And they can add their family members as trusted contacts and decide what sort of access they want to get. At most. It’s only a view only. So if you want to name your adult son your trust to contact, your son cannot make any transactions within the accounts that he is carefully monitoring. If you are already a caregiver for a parent, and you already have for example, let’s say financial power of attorney, you have access to those bank accounts. And you need help staying on top of your parents, finances and accounts . If you have those username and passwords for your parents accounts, then you can set it up for them and get some help with that financial caregiving.

Michael Hughes 07:51
It’s awesome. That’s so so clearly you’re working with people that also share your passion. And I guess it must feel, you know, satisfying to actually put these solutions in the world. And just because you know what it is it’s even beyond the scams in the fraud. It’s all about just an organization and trying to unravel someone’s, you know, financial world if they’re in need. And I know that we’ve certainly had to go through at least in our family when people have been hospitalized and suddenly Okay, where’s this power of attorney? Or where’s this? All of that stuff? So I’m glad that that’s out there. And I guess if we’re going back to the subject of scams and frauds, I mean, there’s a lot out there, but I don’t really know. Are there any that are just the most common ones, or off the top of your head? And what do you think? Just what do you see?

Cameron Huddleston 08:37
So actually, according to federal trade commission data, those sweepstakes scams are the ones that are most likely to ensnare older adults, they become victims of those scams more than other types of scams. Older adults are typically reached by phone, more so than other means of contacts such as email or text message or even knocking on someone’s door or social media. And so, the phone is the way that scammers are coming into contact with older people. If you are at home alone, what’s really sad about this is that we crave social contact. And the scammers are able to keep those older adults on the phone longer if they are lonely, because even if they recognize that the call is suspicious, they will stay on that call longer because they want that social interaction. Which is, you know, very, very sad. And you know, one really easy way to do that is if you’ve got a parent who’s living at home alone, be in constant communication with your parents. Keep those lines of communication open so that your parent does not feel isolated if you don’t live on this same town in the same town, call every day, use FaceTime, whatever you want zoom, whatever is easiest for you, you know, have someone you trust checking in on your parents so that they’re not feeling isolated. Now, the sweepstakes calls and scams aren’t the only ones out there. Some really bad ones are romance scams. These are terrible, because they’re not one time only scams. This is someone who will connect with oftentimes a single but they we’ve even had someone reach out to as a careful whose mother was conned by a romance scammer, and she was ready to divorce her father. So this woman was married and had connected with someone online and you know, convinced this woman that he was in love with her. And the way it typically works is you make that connection online, whether it’s through social media, or even a dating app. And the scammers will quickly escalate the relationship. They’ll say all the right things. You’re wonderful, I think I’m in love. But I’m traveling, we can’t meet in person, they’re always an excuse why they can’t meet in person, they’re living overseas, they have to travel a lot for their job. And then there’ll be an ask for some sort of financial support. Can I have a medical issue, my company needs some financial help, or I’d love to come visit you? Can you pay for my plane ticket to come visit? So there’ll be an ask for money after they develop this trust. And typically, they’re not asking just once for money. If they get a payment, they’re going to be asked again and again. And they’re going to typically ask for payment through some sort of wire transfer or gift card purchases. Maybe it’s cryptocurrency. In fact, cryptocurrency is really common now. People are asking for payments that way, they want payments, forms of payment that are very difficult to reverse. And that isn’t traceable. And so if they’re asking for a specific type of payment, that’s a red flag.

Michael Hughes 12:06
Yeah, so let’s deconstruct this a little bit. And you mentioned two great ones. One was the sweepstakes and one was the romance scam. So the second one first, you know, so if your loved one is talking about a new relationship they have, if it seems to be escalating quickly, if this person if you’ve never met this person, in person in real life, because maybe they’re in another country, they’re traveling a lot, and things like that all of these things, kind of get your called my spidey sense up all, although I’m not representing mark, you know, so So those seem to be. So again, your earlier point, keep in constant communication with your parents, listen to what they’re saying, I’ve got a new boyfriend, I’ve got a new girlfriend or maybe they’re being a little bit cagey about stuff. Right. So you have to be a little bit of an investigator, right? I mean, I know that, you know, for a United Church home, your service coordinators are now guides, as we call them, do often see that as a kind of change in behavior with someone you know, or even I guess, if someone just seems to be in a different mood, right? Maybe they’re more energetic? Maybe there’s something, maybe they’re a little bit more? I don’t know, I mean, you know, your loved ones ask, but I guess they can suddenly be in a different mood. Right,

Cameron Huddleston 13:23
right. And you should pay attention to those changes, you should ask questions like if for example, if you have a teenager who is starting to date someone, you’re going to ask questions, right? Who is this person? How did you meet them? Who’s their family? You want to ask your parents? The same questions? Oh, that’s great that there’s someone new in your life? How did you meet this person? If they met online? That’s your first red flag. Oh, so you’re communicating online.

Michael Hughes 13:52
But the tone and manner that you’re talking to hear as a positive one? Oh, that’s great for you to tell me about this. Be curious. Don’t be confrontational.

Cameron Huddleston 14:01
Yes. You don’t ever want to put your parents on the defensive? Because then your parents are going to shut down, and they’re not going to talk to you because they’re going to think that they’re in trouble. Just like your kids would, you know, they’re gonna shut down too. And so yes, positive. Oh, that’s great. I’m glad you met someone. Could you tell me about this person? How did you meet this person? Oh, you met online? Have you met in person? Hmm. I don’t know. What do you think? Does it seem a little bit unusual that this person is not able to meet with you? Oh, they’re traveling? Do you? And then this is a key thing. Do you have a picture? Do you have a picture of this person? Because what you can do is oftentimes these scammers will use stock photo images. So you want to say maybe, hey, what kind of person looks kind of familiar. Let’s get online and do a Google search and you can click on the pictures and do a search to see is it really a stock photo? Well, then you can be like, Oh my gosh, this boyfriend’s fingers look like they have a bunch of different names out there. Mom, I don’t think this is such a good idea. You have to be careful about people you meet on,

Michael Hughes 15:11
really rings true for me, because you know, you know, for anybody who’s seen this on video and seeing this wall behind me, I do a lot of Oakley estate sales, and I will collect and things like that. And I’ve got the Google app on my phone. And if I see something at a sale, that’s interesting, take a picture of it. And it’ll kind of reverse image search across the web and give me a kind of proxy. So you have somebody’s picture. You can say that on your phone, you can pull up Google or another app that does reverse image search. You can plug it in, and then it just in seconds, just know if this is a stock image, or this is a real life person.

Cameron Huddleston 15:42
Exactly.

Michael Hughes 15:43
I think that’s fascinating. Hey, going back to the very first one about the sweepstakes, scam. So deconstructing that one, you get a phone call, you’re being told that you’re the winner of something? What are the kinds of components of that scam?

Cameron Huddleston 15:59
So really, with the sweepstakes, scam, and any scam, where you’re getting a call out of the blue, they’re going to create this sense of urgency, hey, you just won something, hey, you owe a fine. This is an IRS calling. Or, you know, there’s been a you know, unauthorized transaction in your account. They’re creating a sense of urgency, because they don’t want you to think they want you to act. And they want you to act emotionally. So, hey, get excited, you want something or hey, you need to panic because something bad is happening. And then they’re going to ask for a specific form of payment. Anytime you are asked to pay with a gift card with a wire transfer with cryptocurrency, or a peer to peer payment app, such as Zell or Venmo, or cash app, you know, it’s a scam. A legitimate business, a government agency, even a sweepstakes actually sweepstakes, you can’t. You don’t have to pay any sort of fees to collect sweepstakes or lottery winnings. So that’s a red flag too. But legitimate businesses and government agencies, they’re not going to ask you to pay them with a gift card, or wire transfer.

Michael Hughes 17:21
Okay, so yeah, so just, this is what I jotted down here. Terrific tips. So a call, it’s out of the blue. A call that has a sense of urgency, a call that really plays on emotions, you know, excitement or fear, a call that wants you to pay something, but in an annuity in a way that’s not usual gift card, crypto, Zell Cash App, things of that nature. And I guess you have to do it right, then they’re right there. That’s, that’s scary stuff at a scary stuff when you feel like you’re being through just engineered in that way. And, you know, for people, like, you know, I was raised, you know, you answer the phone, you answer the phone you’re gracious on the phone, you know, that sort of thing. And so that’s, that must be the mindset. I mean, a lot of people just answer the phone that way, because they want to be polite to people on the other end. Oh, yes. Right,

Cameron Huddleston 18:16
exactly. And really, one of the best ways to avoid scams is to not answer your phone, let all of your calls go to voicemail, and then listen to that voicemail, and decide if you want to call back. Typically, if it’s a scammer, the scammer will not leave a voicemail message. Sometimes they do. But what you do is if there is that message, and they leave a number claiming to be with, for example, your cell phone provider or your bank, or any sort of government agency, if they’re leaving a number, don’t call the number that you have been left in that message, look up the phone number for that business or organization, look it up online and call it directly and say, Hi, this is so and so. Were you trying to contact me about something related to my account, go directly to the source. But really, it’s just best to let all calls go to voicemail because scammers can use technology and make it appear like it’s a local number. They can even make it appear like it’s a business that you recognize. It’ll pop up on caller ID so you can’t trust caller ID.

Michael Hughes 19:25
Wow. So that’s another great tip. Let all of your calls go to voicemail. I mean, this is I mean, we’re talking about a we’re we’re we’re filming this recording this rather in 2023 Me Chad GPT is a huge thing right now. You know, we’re in a world where you know, deep fakes and things like that. I mean, the scariest thing I’ve been hearing is that people are getting calls saying that their grandchildren are in trouble. Yeah, you’ve heard about that. I mean, how many pull that off?

Cameron Huddleston 19:54
Well, one way that they pull it off is because some of us share too much information on Social media, scammers will take advantage of what you’re sharing on Facebook, to use it to take advantage of you. So let’s say that you are posting pictures of your grandchild. And you’ve got the name. Oh, it’s my grandchild John’s, you know, 60th birthday. So excited Happy Birthday, John. Or maybe you’re sharing information about your cat and how much you love your cat. Roaming scammers can use that information. Oh, I love cats. We have so much in common, but sometimes they don’t even say the name. You know, they just you know, Hi, grandma, this is your grandson. Please don’t tell mom and dad, but I’m in trouble. And I need some money right away. Clearly, if you don’t have a grandson, you know, it’s a scam. But if you do, what you need to do is ask questions that only your grandson can answer. Oh, where are you right now, you know, then listen, I need to call you back, give me a number where I can call you back, you know, the best thing to do is always to take a moment. And think about what you’re being told, don’t rush into taking any sort of action. And that might mean let me call you back, hang on a second, give me a minute, you know, put the phone down. And if they called you on the landline, go get on your cell phone and call someone that you trust and say, Hey, I just got a call supposedly from you know, I grande son, you know, whatever. But yeah, if you get a call this supposedly from a family member asked some questions that only that family member can answer. And again, if you’re asked to send a gift card, or a wire transfer, you know, it’s probably suspicious, you know, it’s probably a scam.

Michael Hughes 21:51
You know, I’m just in a, you know, I’ve got a 14 year old and his voice is changing by the day, you know, and I would guess that even if you call up and say your grandson, and you haven’t talked your grandson in a little while, of course, maybe a little bit of a deeper voice or strange voice or something. And that really kind of kind of calls. I mean, there’s so much evil in that scam, you know, the the exploitation of a family member or you know, the idea that you’re excited to get a call from your grandson, but you’re also excited that he or she, he’s calling you to solve a problem for him, and you want to be there for him and all of that stuff. I mean, it’s just heartbreaking, you know, and luckily, I’ve almost been taken to I mean, I’ve been I got a text, gosh, about a year ago from someone I was working with saying, Hey, can you get us some gift cards? And it was, you know, and that’s that was just, you know, wow, I mean, I thank goodness, I didn’t send it, but it was good. You know,

Cameron Huddleston 22:46
I’m glad you brought up the text messages, because that is a very common way that scammers are trying to reach out to people now. And they’re very convincing. I get text messages at least once a week, sometimes several times a week, supposedly from Netflix, Amazon, PayPal, sometimes Venmo telling me that there is something wrong with my account. There’s been suspicious activity, whatever, they’re freezing my account, they’re suspending my account, they’re canceling my account, I need to click on a link in that text message right now to solve the problem. So what happens is, if you actually click on the link, it’s going to take you to a fake website where they’re going to steal your account login credentials, or it’s going to download spyware onto your phone. Never click on a link in an unsolicited text message. I wouldn’t even click a link in a text message that a friend sent me because you never know if they’re like, oh my gosh, I just got this text message about this great opportunity to get a freebie. You know, whatever, some special coupon or whatever, click on this link. It could be a scam because maybe someone even hijacked your friend’s phone, or maybe your friend’s phone was stolen. Don’t click on links and text messages. Now some of these text messages it’s obvious it’s a scam because the language is off. You know, there are typos. The grammar is incorrect. If you look at the length that it’s sending you to maybe it’s supposedly from PayPal but the link is to customer service 12345 DOT whatever and it has nothing to do with PayPal. And it’s pretty obvious that this could be a scam. But again, it goes

Michael Hughes 24:36
for email too, right? Is this the same thing you’re saying about text messages is the same thing for email. I mean I have a junk email that I use just for all my commerce stuff and things like that and that one gets a lot of likes for some reason Coinbase you know your coin base account is just there just like little kind of tries on that. But so everything you’re saying about this Texas going through my day goes the same for email.

Cameron Huddleston 24:58
Right, right. Don’t click on links and text messages and emails. And I know that these text messages I’m getting are scams, because like I said, I get them all the time, I never respond. And surprise, you know, my texts, my Netflix subscription has not been canceled. My Amazon subscription has not been canceled, it’s a scam. Don’t click on those links. Again, if someone is sending you a message or an email, supposedly about fraudulent activity on your bank account, or one of your subscription services, log into your account online or call that service provider directly. To find out if there’s an issue. Like I am so suspicious that even if I get a message, that’s supposedly from my credit card, warning me of suspicious transactions, I won’t respond, I will call my credit card issuer directly and say, Hey, I just got a message. Was this actually from you guys? Is there a problem?

Michael Hughes 25:57
Gotcha. So just to summarize the, you know, the tips here, which I think are terrific. And you know, another thought I had is that just what they’re planning on is the fight or flight syndrome that people have in their heads, right? So it’s the same thing like a call, something’s wrong, you have to act right now. Something horrible is going to happen. Unless you act right now. You need to click on this link you need. I mean, if something comes across, quite frankly, that is that important. You’re right, go right. We have to train ourselves, we have to train ourselves to take a second and this is tough, right? This is tough to teach. And that’s why Hopefully, these tips will help people that are out there. If something either excitement or fear comes your way, take a moment, take a breath and, and start getting your armor up, you know, because, you know, it doesn’t mean you have a choice, you don’t have to act right away. Right?

Cameron Huddleston 26:53
You’re right. And I hate to tell people to be suspicious of everything. But you should be suspicious of everything. Because the scammers are so good. This is their full time job. They do this day in and day out, they know how to get to us. They know they’re always coming up with new stories, they’re always coming up with new ways to con us out of our money or our personal information. And we have to keep our guard up. You know it really because those stories can change, just knowing the red flags, the like the ones we’ve talked about, you know, creating that sense of emergency, asking for a specific form of payment, or if they’re asking for your personal information. And here’s something to know, if you ever get a call a text message or an email or an email from a government agency, you know, right off the bat, it’s a scam, the IRS, Social Security Administration, Medicare, these government agencies will not call you out of the blue, they typically communicate by mail, not going to call unless you have already been on the phone with a representative with the Social Security Administration, you’re having a conversation about an issue, they have your phone number, they you’ve already talked to the representative, they’re going to call you back, Social Security is not going to call you out of the blue and tell you that you have to pay some sort of fee to get your cost of living adjustment, or they’re going to call you out of the blue and tell you that your benefits are suspended. It’s not going to happen. The IRS is not going to call you and tell you that they’re being audited, they’re gonna send the letter first.

Michael Hughes 28:29
That’s, I tell you my exit was coming up during this conversation. But again, just the tips you’re sharing are just amazing. And this is something that I carefully put out on a regular basis. Right? So there’s a as the because these, they’re not going to stop. And there’s going to be new types of scams all the time. And you guys are doing your best to keep track of that, right?

Cameron Huddleston 28:50
Yes. So in addition to lots of articles related to basic steps that you can take to protect yourself. Whenever we hear about new scams, we issue scam alerts. And so we let people know, Hey, there’s this new Facebook marketplace scam. There’s this new, celebrity endorsed product scam that’s circulating, there’s a new, you know, mortgage scam that’s circulating. And these are all scams that I’ve written about recently. So yes, we try to stay on top of all the latest scams that are happening and let people know.

Michael Hughes 29:21
Yeah, that’s something that we aspire to as well. So getting your information and keeping in touch on these things is really so important. So I think that’s a great place to end at least the, you know, our scams and fraud portion of it. But there is something we’d like to do with all guests on the art of aging. And we’d like to ask people three questions about their experience with the world of aging. Is it okay, if I ask that of you? Yes, let’s do it. Okay, excellent. All right. The first question we always ask is when you think about yourself, when you think about how you age, what do you think has changed about you or grow with you that you really like about yourself

Cameron Huddleston 29:59
and think What aging allows you to do is realize that you should stop wasting time worrying about what others think about you. I’m not, I’m not 100%. Past that, you know, but I feel like I do a much better job of not wasting my time worrying about what others are thinking.

Michael Hughes 30:23
There’s a great saying that I heard once that you know, when you’re in your 20s, you really care about what other people think about you. And when in your 40s, you don’t care about what other people think about you. And when you’re in your 60s, you realize they weren’t even thinking about you at all.

Cameron Huddleston 30:38
Which is probably true.

Michael Hughes 30:40
Your preference? Alright, question number two. What surprised you the most about yourself as you age?

Cameron Huddleston 30:47
Oh, jeez, that’s a tough one. You know, I think what surprised me the most is that honestly, mentally I don’t feel older. Physically. I do. I have noticed the changes. Like when I turned 40, I stopped being able to see things up close and had to get Yeah. Yes, yeah. You know, and then you start to see, like, you know, your knees are getting stiffer. The skin is losing its elasticity. I’ve noticed that. But I think when we’re young, we have this idea that as we get older, something’s going to change, we’ll suddenly wake up one day, and we’re gonna feel like this wise grown up. But I don’t think that’s the case. There’s never been a year or a day or a month when I’ve just woken up. And I’m like, Yes, I have finally achieved this wisdom and this maturity that makes me an official adult. You know, it’s just that I still feel like myself, uh, certainly, I’ve learned things and I have become wiser. But it’s not like there was a switch that was flipped, and suddenly I was this grown up.

Michael Hughes 32:01
That’s actually I think a little bit hurt me to people that you still feel like you’re not there. Maybe there’s not a switch, you know, because we can, you know, if you’d like, let if you’d like all those joyful things, but we’d like to say that, you know, you may physically grow older, but what’s special is that it grows richer with age. And I think that’s something that people will look forward to. So I’m so glad that you said that I kind of feel the same way myself and I still sort of whole, you know, 23 year old Mike, in my head, you know, likes this and likes that. And there’s a through line there. But yeah, it doesn’t mean we have to sort of put away old things and get new things if you grow up,

Cameron Huddleston 32:36
right. I mean, I’m not gonna do a lot of the stupid things that I did when I was in my early 20s. I’ve certainly, you know, aged in that regard. I’m wiser in that regard. But no, I think it is. I think maintaining this youthful outlook on life is helpful. You know, they say age is just the number and I think that’s true. As long as you maintain this youthful mentality, then I think that’s good for

Michael Hughes 33:02
everyone. Everyone aspires to do all sorts of new stupid things. And last question we’ve got here is, is there anyone that you’ve met, or been in your life that has set a good example for you in aging, somebody who inspires you to kind of age with that abundance? You’ve been talking about?

Cameron Huddleston 33:19
My grandmother, my dad’s mother, lived until she was 98 years old. She was very sharp until the very end, she was playing golf into her 80s and beating women, half her age. And I think because she stayed active, and she stayed social. She lived a long, rich life. And so she is definitely inspiring.

Michael Hughes 33:47
That’s amazing. Amazing. I’m so glad that she was in your life. Like thank you for being a guest on the podcast, Cameron. And thank you, our listeners for listening to this episode TRG started to listen to this episode of The Art of aging, which is part of the abundant aging podcasters United Church homes and we want to hear what you think about the subject today. You know, what sort of scams are you seeing out there? You know, how do you stay savvy and avoid scams? And also how do you age abundantly who are aging heroes in your life? Visit us at abundant agent podcast.com to share your ideas. You can also give us feedback. When you visit the roof, prosper. There was the Ruth Frost Parker Center, which is on the web at United Church homes.org/parker-center. And there’s a lot of great research and leadership that comes out of the center and we are having our annual symposium in October on the subject of combat and ageism. I Kevin, where can people find you?

Cameron Huddleston 34:41
You can find me at Cameron huddleston.com And if you go to get careful with two L’s DOT com, we have lots of articles on our website to help you identify and avoid scams. That’s awesome.

Michael Hughes 34:57
So definitely check that out. Check us out on YouTube and United Church homes. We have Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn but all sorts of ways you can communicate with us. We’d like to communicate with you and we look forward to having you guys listen to another episode of The Art of Aging soon. Until then, peace.