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We dealt with this too, with my FIL who thought he'd be the next Publishers Clearing House winner! We were living with him, so I snagged his mail once he went to bed. I found his hiding places! I wrote over 75 letters, which my hubby signed as his POA. Letters said he had died. Yes, it was a fiblet, but the letters stopped, for the most part. We even got a few condolence letters. I still laugh about it, but it was a pain in the tush at the time! P.O. box is a great idea, or change of address to your place. Good luck!!!
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This was also happening to my Mother. Sometimes she got three requests for money in a day from the same charity. Some days she got requests from them thanking her for agreeing to pay a certain amount yet I live with her 24/7 and the phone never rang.i do have POA and my name is on her bank accounts. To stop this I typed up a generic letter that basically states that my Mother only has so much to give and that she has decided it was to be her church instead of all the solicitors. I went on to say that since you called and asked for funds and with my Mother having dementia that she doesn't remember the phone call anyway. (She said she doesn't remember the call but since they sent a letter she must have agreed and felt obligated to pay it) but as I stated some of these letters are robot generated and her phone never rang. I stated in the letter that she cannot afford to pay everyone who asks or she would be in financial trouble and I realized that this put the charity in a bind with their numbers but it also puts her in a bind with numbers. I made clear that the solicitations must stop and that if she received any more phone calls or letters that they would be ignored. Every time she got a letter I intercepted it and sent a photo copy of the solicitation and my generic letter. This has worked well as her phone calls have dramatically decreased and so has the solicitation letters. It did take a while but it worked. The worst was from Mothers against drunk driving as they wasted a lot of paper and postage sending her letters. I did type a letter to the director of MADD once and admonished them, but never received a reply. I have a total of 16 letters from them alone and there are only 12 months in a year. That is more than one a month from one charity!!
This tactic did work as her mailbox has little to no solicitations and her phone definitely rings less. I understand this may not work as well for others who do not live with their parent, but other tactics of using a p.o. Box to divert their mail would work well also. It really is a shame that you have to do these things to keep your loved ones from predators, but my tactic worked well I haven't had to send any letters for a few months now. i hope this helps
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Forgot... the show is called Marketplace - Canadian consumer advocates for over 30 years.
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I'm so very sick of the vultures who prey on the vulnerable. The "sucker list"... yet another challenge set to drain. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, so take it for what it is, but do names get taken off these lists if it is reported to these fundraisers that their target I mean donor, has passed? (even though I read above they don't remove names..)
For any Cdns, it was refreshing to see the recent show they did on the many challenges with redeeming airmiles... along with their coverage of the one person who complained to the gov't, the laws were recently changed in ON.. this enforced the conglomerate to ease their rules)
Squeaky wheel gets the grease. This is a topic that needs public discussion. Lets be like the guy in Ontario who enabled fairness for all of Canada with one issue.
Different situation, but hopes as just one complains, then another... willfully sucking money out of those who's brains are incapable of proper decision-making is a vile act & should be made illegal.
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I had the same problem with my father. It was an absolute nightmare. I called them and wrote them and for the most part put a dent in all of it, but he had gotten on the sucker list.Once you are on there, unfortunately, it is for life. Reagans Ranch was the worse, they were asking for thousands of dollars on a weekly basis, they are vultures. So, I checked his mailbox everyday hundreds of letters and threw them out. It is all you can do.
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If you are the agent under your father's power of attorney, you might consider taking away the checkbook and the credit cards and substituting a credit card available from True Link Financial. That prepaid debit card can be programmed to only buy certain things and only be used at certain stores. You can receive a printout of purchases.
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Here's how I put a stop to the solicitations: a Post Office Box and a change of address form! Nothing more will come to the house, and you, the dear child, will be able to intercept the bad mail that is arriving.

You will also be able to call the cc companies and request a new card number be sent to the PO box. You will then have a cc in the name of parent, but the old one won't work. When you go out with gramps, you can supply a prepaid card that you pay for out of the checking account.
This requires that you have your name on checking as POA. Get gramps to the bank before he is completely out of his wits, as the bank has to have original signatures on their own forms - brokerage houses also. Don't make these joint accounts, but POA accounts so that you can pay the bills. "if he's in the hospital, or if the property taxes come due and he is unable to find the bill."
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I have had the same problem with my mom. And believe me, she can't spare a penny. But she still sends money. I have been able to intervene a few times. The last one she was sending $20 to some guy so that he would pray for her. UGH! I was able to stop one. It's so frustrating when just $20 can make or break her. She has nothing to spare. She has probably 40-50 pieces of mail a month asking for money to win money or folks wanting money. I don't think there is anyway to stop it once a person's name is on the mailing lists.
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If your father is "competent" in the legal sense, alas, he can make any decisions he wants and spend his money as he pleases. Your best recourse is to convince him to stop giving or to give less. Would it work to decide with him how much he can afford to give each month, pick one charity, and set that up as an automatic payment? Could he remember that he did that and say no to other requests? If he agrees that he needs to limit his giving but has a hard time saying no, perhaps he would agree to have his telephone number changed, which would stop at least some of solicitations for a while.

If the dear generous man is not competent to make decisions in his own best interests and you have his POA, then you have a lot more flexibility to do things like limit the funds he has access to.
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I dealing with this issue with my Dad also. He has dementia and has been giving out his credit card info over the phone. So far the charges are small but once these creeps score they keep calling cause they know they have an easy mark.

I've had limited success calling the bank and the so called called charities to get the charges reversed even though I have financial POA. Ultimately my only choice if this continues will be to get the charge card away from him and supply him with just enough cash to get by. It will be ugly but it may have to be done. I'd rather have him pissed off than squander thousands on these crooks.
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Charities will not remove names. The people who do these things are in the business of raising funds. You can address it with your parent and let them know they cannot afford to do it. Is your parent still competent? If so, then there is not much you can do other than talk to him. Do you have his POA for finances? If you do and you think that he is not competent to handle his own money, you can make it so where most of his money is not available to him. This will start a war, but sometimes someone needs to take measures to stop charity donations.

I often feel that charity fundraisers have hearts of stone. They can target people who are older because they tend to give more money than others. Then they can put people on a "sucker list" if they give a donation. They sell this list to other charities. Someone who gives once may find himself the target of multiple charities looking for money.
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