AgeWell speaker urges Williamson County seniors to take basic steps to avoid scams

Paula Dagel, a representative of AgeWell Middle Tennessee, told attendees at a Williamson County Public Library event that scammers deliberately target older adults for their savings and availability during the day and that isolation increases risk. "I want you to leave here to feel empowered, not afraid," Dagel said at the start of the program.

Dagel named several common schemes — the grandparent impersonation call, callers posing as IRS or Medicare agents, and tech pop-ups that claim to be Microsoft — and urged a cautious response: "It's okay to say, 'Let me call you back.'" She recommended practical protections including the Do Not Call registry, two-step authentication on financial accounts, annual checks of credit reports and freezing credit where appropriate.

Contextualizing the threat, Dagel cited warnings from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI and recounted a local example in which a person lost funds after following instructions from a caller claiming to be a bank fraud unit. She closed by pointing attendees to printed AgeWell directories and a helpline for aging-related referrals.