How to help an aging parent set up protection

A calm, free-first checklist you can sit down and do together.

Written November 12, 2026.

Helping a parent is easier if you treat it as a short project you do together, not as a surprise takeover of their accounts. This checklist starts with free steps. It does not guarantee that a parent will never get a scam call. It does give you a shared plan.

Before you sit down

• Ask permission. Explain that you want to set up a free credit freeze and a couple of family rules, not take the checkbook.
• Set aside a quiet hour. Use a computer or tablet your parent already trusts.
• Have a paper notebook ready. Logins and freeze PINs belong in a safe place at their house, not in a random text thread.
• Agree on a family code word for emergencies (see grandparent scams). Write it down.

The session

1. Freeze credit at all three bureaus. Follow the step-by-step article and use only the official Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion links. Help with the typing if they want help. Let them keep the passwords.
2. Request or print a credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com if they want to look for accounts they do not recognize. If something is already wrong, use IdentityTheft.gov.
3. Write official numbers in the notebook — the bank on the back of the card, Medicare from a statement or Medicare.gov, the IRS only from IRS.gov or a notice they already have. The rule is: hang up and call a number you already wrote down.
4. Practice one “package text” and one “IRS call.” Read package-delivery texts and IRS and Medicare impostor calls out loud if that helps. The action is always the same: do not tap, do not pay with gift cards, call back on a known number.
5. Optional: a trusted contact. Some banks and brokerages let a customer name a person the firm may call if they see unusual activity. That is the parent’s choice, set up with the institution, not with this site.

If you also want a paid plan

A freeze does not watch existing accounts or provide a company’s recovery service. If your parent wants those extras, read what paid monitoring adds and the dated price table in Aura vs LifeLock (prices published November 12, 2026). If you follow a link to Aura’s current plans #ad from this site, that link is marked #ad and we may earn a commission. Do not present a paid plan as something that will make a parent un-scammable.

Afterward

Check in after the first unexpected call or text, not only after a crisis. If a platform or a person pressures you to move money today, it is all right for either of you to say you need to call the other parent or sibling first. That pause is the point of the code word.