Equifax: https://www.Equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/. Or call its automated line at 800-685-1111.

Experian: Visit www.Experian.com/freeze. Or call 1-888-EXPERIAN (1-888-397-3742).

Monitor the mail. ID thieves still steal snail mail. To help thwart this, the U.S. Postal Service has developed an “Informed Delivery” service through which it will send a daily email with the items that will be delivered to your mail box. You’ll know if something is missing. www.informeddelivery.usps.com.

As cognition continues to decline, in addition to the car keys, families often need to get physical control of the checkbook, debit cards, credit cards and online accounts. Powers of attorney and trust agreements should help here, if put in place early enough but even then, getting control is often easier said than done.

There needs to be a mechanism whereby the legitimacy of bills and notices is determined. Clients should consider setting up online banking or hiring a daily money manager to pay these bills.

All of these things are easier to accomplish if a local family member is involved. Of course, not every client will have family available locally to help. Even if your client does not have family nearby to help, the client can gain an added line of defense by allowing more people to watch after them and their money. A key to protection is to have several sets of eyes looking at what’s going on independently.

One reason for this is that sadly, statistically speaking, the most likely perpetrator of elder fraud and exploitation is a family member, followed closely behind by friends. Account access, powers of attorney, sharing of online credentials and other techniques can be destructive instead of protective. By having more eyes on the situation, taking advantage of an elder is less likely.

With today’s technology, all it takes is some permissions to allow specific people to see what is happening in mom’s accounts regardless of where in the world those specific people may be. This can be set up easily through duplicate statements, client portals and the like.

Multiple sets of eyes mean multiple opinions about many things. In talking to colleagues about these issues, many are hesitant to engage with a client’s kids because they are afraid one of them will not like how the client is being served or the kids won’t get along. That concern is often justified. The more people you have involved, the more likely it is there will be a disagreement somewhere along the line.

All I can say about that is have the conversation anyway. Your client is your top priority. If you don’t help your client get people involved to mount a defense, your client’s finances are in jeopardy. You may have an even bigger mess on your hands in the future. Your client needs the support of others to keep the scam artists out of their life. Be there for them.