I was going through my mother’s bank statements the other day and I noticed a recurring charge for $29.95 from an online mall website. I logged into her email account to see if they’d been communicating with her and I almost fell out of my chair. She had subscribed to so many email lists that she had over 10,000 unread emails in her account.

She was getting investment tips from at least a dozen investment “gurus”. She was also receiving email from The Perfect Abs as well as numerous health “experts”. She was even learning how to cook organically even though she doesn’t cook anymore.

It took me over 2 hours to clear out her email account and unsubscribe her from the newsletters. I also discovered she was signed up for 3 credit monitoring services in addition to the online mall. She also receives a lot of junk mail that is targeted to seniors and many of the offers look very suspicious.

While I was unsubscribing Mom from the newsletters, I checked out some of the websites of these “gurus”. Many of the websites are very confusing and encourage you to click on links that will sign you up for recurring services. If you ever signed up for an account at GoDaddy.com you know what I mean. Their website is very confusing and they’re constantly upselling additional services to you.

It’s really sad to see these vultures preying on seniors who are on a fixed income and are struggling to survive financially. Even when you try to explain to your parents not to sign up for these services they just don’t understand. The websites, direct mail and telemarketers are designed to sell them services they don’t need and most of the time they don’t know they’re signing up for a recurring charge.

Keep an eye on your parents bank accounts and email accounts to make sure they aren’t being scammed!

Who will make your life or death decision?