Your mother pays for vegetables by phone now.
She is quietly proud of it.
She is also the person a fraudster wants to call tonight.
You cannot sit beside her forever.
So the aim is different.
Set the phone up so mistakes are survivable.
Then leave rules short enough to remember.
Give it one unhurried sitting, with tea, and without sighing.
What should I set up before we start?
Do the dull parts yourself, before any teaching begins.
Link a second bank account with a small working balance.
Never the account holding their savings.
Lower the daily UPI limit to something realistic for their week.
Turn on the app lock inside the payment app.
Use a fingerprint if the phone supports it.
Make sure transaction alerts arrive where they will actually be seen.
Increase the text size while you are there.
A confirmation screen nobody can read gets approved blindly.
Save the bank's real number from their card into their contacts.
Save your own number as the first one they will find.
Delete any app you do not recognise.
Especially anything that can share the screen.
What are the three rules?
Keep it to three, and say them in their words.
One: the PIN only sends money out, never in.
Two: no bank ever calls and asks you to touch your phone.
Three: when anything feels urgent, hang up and call me first.
That is the whole syllabus.
Every scam in this series trips over one of the three.
How do I make the rules stick?
Write them on a card by the charging point.
Then practise, because reading is not the same as doing.
Send them a small amount and watch them receive it.
They will see that no PIN was needed.
Then send a ten rupee request and let them decline it.
Now declining feels normal rather than rude.
Agree out loud that hanging up on anyone is allowed.
Promise you will never be annoyed by a check-in call.
Then check the account together once a month.
What if it has already happened?
Say nothing about how it happened, not that day.
Block the card and call the bank.
Then call 1930 and file the complaint at cybercrime.gov.in.
Note the time, the amount and the transaction reference.
Then tell them this happens to careful people every day.
Shame is what stops the next call reaching you in time.
Things to Remember
- Set up the small account, the low limit and the app lock yourself.
- Teach only three rules, and write them on a card.
- Practise receiving money and declining a request together.
- Make hanging up and calling you the agreed reflex.
- If it happens, act fast and never make them feel foolish.