Give an older person a ready line for turning things down: "I have to go home and talk it over with my family"

Cost

Free. One conversation with the older person, a few minutes.

What you get

Sales pitches and scams both depend on pressure in the moment. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's guide to avoiding scams says that scammers want you to act before you have time to think. On the phone, they tell you not to hang up so that you can't check. The guide's advice is to tell someone before you do anything, whether a friend, family member or neighbor, because saying it out loud may show it is a scam. A 2021 risk notice from the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (原银保监会) also advises older people to talk with family before buying financial products. One experiment recruited 116 people aged 65 to 85 and 115 people aged 30 to 40. The researchers first used a win-or-lose game to stir up the emotions of some of them, and then showed them exaggerated, untrue ads. People whose emotions were really stirred wanted more to buy what the ad showed. Whether or not emotions were stirred, older people wanted to buy more than younger ones. The authors suggest making spending decisions after emotions have calmed. Another experiment recruited people who had earlier lost money to mail fraud, most of them older. Among those who had not been warned in advance, nearly half said yes right away to a simulated sales-fraud phone call. Among those who had been phoned with a warning two to four weeks earlier, far fewer said yes right away. Agreeing beforehand on the line "I have to go home and talk it over with my family" gives the older person a way out, so they don't have to decide on the spot.

Notes

It is rated B because neither experiment tested this exact line. One tested whether people want to buy when excited, and the other tested whether a warning in advance helps, and no study compared how much less often older people who had this line got scammed. Use it together with §17.3 (keep the older person's money in a separate account). Do the fall-proofing changes at home too while you are at it; see §1. This line gives the older person a way out so they don't have to hold firm on the spot; it is not meant to guard against them. When you are surrounded by salespeople, the hardest part is refusing in front of a room full of people, and that is harder than judging whether it is true or false.

Evidence grade

B : Supported by research but without a precise number, or based on small or single studies.

Sources

1. Federal Trade Commission (2023). How To Avoid a Scam. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-avoid-scam
2. 中国银保监会消费者权益保护局 (2021). 关于警惕「投资养老」「以房养老」金融诈骗的风险提示（2021 年第三期）. https://dfjrjgj.hunan.gov.cn/dfjrjgj/yhlj/202106/t20210608_19450856.html（湖南省地方金融监督管理局转载）
3. Kircanski K, Notthoff N, DeLiema M, et al. (2018). Emotional arousal may increase susceptibility to fraud in older and younger adults. Psychology and Aging, 33(2), 325-337. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000228
4. Scheibe S, Notthoff N, Menkin J, et al. (2014). Forewarning reduces fraud susceptibility in vulnerable consumers. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 36(3), 272-279. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2014.903844

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 17, tip 4. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer