The best protection for an older relative is a short setup session and one simple rule: no company bills you through your calendar, so if anything says you were charged, open the app yourself or call me first. Add one calendar setting, a few saved phone numbers and bank alerts, and most fake invoice scams run out of road before any money moves.
These scams now arrive on the calendar as well as by email: a fake $499.99 Norton charge, a PayPal "auto-debit", a Geek Squad renewal, each with a number to call. They can show up even when the email went to Junk, and the reminder can pop up on a phone right away. Our guide to scam calendar invites explains how. This page is about the people you look out for.
Why older adults are the target
The call these invites lead to is a tech-support refund scam, and older adults lose the most to it. In 2025, people 60 and older reported about $1.04 billion in tech and customer support scam losses to the FBI, roughly half of the $2.13 billion total (FBI IC3). The FTC found that people 60 and older were five times as likely as younger adults to report losing money to tech support scams (FTC).
The phone is where the money goes. In the FTC's data, older adults' median loss when a scam started with a phone call was $2,210, against $650 when it started on social media (FTC). A fake invoice is designed to start exactly that phone call.
None of this is about being gullible. The invitations come from real Google or Apple servers, use real brand names, and are written by people who do this all day.
A 20-minute setup session
Do these together, on their devices, so they know what changed and why.
- Change the calendar setting. If they use Google Calendar, go to Settings > General > Event settings > Add invitations to my calendar and choose Only if the sender is known. If they use iCloud, set invitations to Receive via Email on iCloud.com. Outlook.com has no equivalent setting yet, which makes the rule below more important. Step-by-step instructions are in our guide to removing and stopping spam calendar invites.
- Clear out what's already there. Look through the next few weeks of their calendar for anything that mentions a payment, invoice, renewal or phone number. Report and remove it using the same guide.
- Save the real numbers. Add their bank, card issuer and any security software they actually pay for to their contacts, taken from the back of the card or the company's own website. Label them clearly, such as "Bank (real)". When a bill looks wrong, they call that number, not one in a message.
- Turn on bank alerts for large withdrawals and transfers, so unusual activity shows up quickly, for them and, if they agree, for you.
- Write down what they actually subscribe to. If they know they don't pay for Norton, a Norton bill is easy to dismiss.
Agree on one household rule
Keep it short enough to remember under pressure:
No company bills you through your calendar. If anything says you were charged, don't call the number in it. Open the app yourself, or call me first.
It holds up because the companies being impersonated say the same thing. Norton says it "never sends calendar invites related to billing or payment" (Norton support). McAfee says, "We'll never require you to call a phone number in an email or text" (McAfee). And the FTC's test is simple: "If you don't see a transaction for a tech support subscription, that tells you the message was a scam" (FTC).
The hard stops
Some requests mean "hang up" every time, no matter how convincing the caller is. Write these on a card by the phone or computer if that helps:
- Installing an app so someone can "help" or "process a refund". Remote access is how the scam gets into their bank account.
- Logging into the bank while someone is connected or on the phone.
- Gift cards, wire transfers, crypto or a crypto ATM to fix a billing problem.
- Cash or gold handed to a courier, or mailed. The FBI says legitimate businesses will never ask anyone to buy gold (FBI IC3).
- Moving money to a "safe" or "protected" account. The FTC says there is no such thing as a "federal safety locker" (FTC).
- Being told to keep it secret from family or the bank.
Signs they might be in the middle of one
Refund scams can stretch over days or weeks. Watch for:
- A long call or repeated calls with "support", "the refund department" or "the fraud team".
- A new remote-access app on their computer, such as AnyDesk.
- Unusual withdrawals, new payees, or questions about buying gift cards or using a crypto ATM.
- Talk of a refund that went wrong and money they now "owe back".
- A courier expected at the house.
If you see any of these, help them hang up and follow our guide to what to do after calling the number on a fake invoice, starting with a call to their bank.
If it already happened
Act quickly and without blame. Call their bank together using the number on their card; in one case the FTC described, a $50,000 wire was frozen after it was reported (FTC). Then report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov. For people 60 and older, the National Elder Fraud Hotline is 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311).
You don't have to be the victim to report it. About 16% of FTC reports about people 80 and older are filed by someone else (FTC).
How to talk about it
Lead with how the scam works, not with what they should have known. "These come from Google's real servers and skip the spam folder" lands better than "don't fall for scams". Show them a real example, like the fake Norton invite we took apart, so the next one looks familiar. And make it easy to ask: the goal is that "call me first" feels normal, not embarrassing.
Frequently asked questions
My parent uses Outlook.com. What can I do if there's no setting? Lean on the rule and the saved numbers. Show them how to report and delete a fake event, and remind them that an event on the calendar is not a bill. If they also have a Google account, change the setting there.
Should I take over their accounts? Only if they want you to. Bank alerts that go to both of you, and an agreement to call you before paying anything unexpected, protect them without taking away their independence.
What if they already gave someone remote access? Disconnect the computer from the internet, call the bank, and follow these steps. Don't use that computer for banking until it's been checked.