Set up the freeze when the adult first turns eighteen, or now if it has not been done yet. Three websites, ten minutes each. Save the freeze PINs in a password manager or in a sealed envelope with the legal documents. The freeze is the difference between “scammer opened seven credit cards in his name” and “scammer tried and could not.” This is the protection that scales the worst-case scenario from devastating to merely annoying.

Safe spending tools.

The second layer of protection is the spending tool. The ABLE account, paired with a debit card that has a daily spending limit, gives the adult financial autonomy without exposing the entire account to a single scam. Many state ABLE programs let the account holder (or the authorized signer) set daily spending caps that hold across debit purchases, gift card purchases, and online merchant charges. A daily limit of one hundred dollars makes a single bad transaction painful but not catastrophic.

For online purchases specifically, pre-loaded gift cards are a meaningful protective layer. Buy a $25 or $50 Amazon or Visa gift card at the grocery store, load it once, use it for online purchases until empty. The merchant never has long-lived account credentials. Recurring fraud requires repeated card loading, which provides a natural pause.

Two-factor authentication on every account that supports it. SMS code or authenticator app. The credentials alone are not enough to log in; the second factor stops most account-takeover attempts cold. Banks, ABLE programs, email accounts, social media, and any merchant that supports it.

The monthly account-review routine.

Rita’s routine, the first-Saturday review, is the single best practice we recommend. It works because it is predictable, low-friction, and shared. The adult is part of the review. The adult sees the line items. The adult is not being audited; the adult is co-piloting their own finances with a trusted family member or paid supporter. Most months the review takes ten minutes. The months when something is wrong are the months when ten minutes matter. The pattern of escalating gift-card purchases that took Rita six months to catch would have been visible in the first month if she had run the review one month earlier.

Schedule the review on a recurring calendar. Same day, same time, same coffee. Sit at the same table. Pull up the ABLE account, the checking account, and any other regular account. Look at each transaction. Ask one question per unusual line item: what did you buy. The adult answers. Most answers are unremarkable. The one that is not is the one to follow.

The annual credit report check.

Federal law guarantees a free credit report from each of the three bureaus every twelve months. The official site is annualcreditreport.com. Pull one report from one bureau every four months and you will have continuous visibility into the adult’s credit file at no cost. New accounts the adult did not open will appear on the report. Inquiries the adult did not authorize will appear. Address changes the adult did not make will appear. The annual check is the failsafe behind the credit freeze: the freeze prevents new accounts, the report verifies that nothing got through anyway.

The “don’t tell anyone” rule.

This is the single rule we ask families to teach explicitly to the adult: if someone says do not tell anyone, that is the signal to tell someone immediately. Every legitimate transaction welcomes scrutiny. The bank, the doctor, the landlord, the employer, the IRS, the SSA, all of them are fine with the adult talking to a parent or trusted supporter about what they are being asked to do. Every scammer asks for secrecy because scrutiny is the scammer’s enemy. Frame the rule positively: telling someone protects the adult, not punishes them.

Pair this with one more rule: nobody legitimate ever requests payment in gift cards. Not the IRS, not Medicare, not Social Security, not the electric company, not the police, not a relative in trouble. Gift cards are designed for retail purchase, not bill payment. Any request for payment by gift card is a scam without exception. Teach the rule. Practice the rule. Make it a refrain in the household.

Caregiver financial abuse: the harder pattern.

Stranger scams are the headline. Trusted-helper financial abuse is the more common and more devastating problem. A paid Direct Support Professional who siphons twenty dollars at a time from the daily-spending envelope. A relative who is named on the bank account and starts using it for personal expenses. A friend who borrows and never repays. A partner who runs the household budget into their own purchases. These patterns are harder to spot because they sit inside relationships of trust.

The defense is the same monthly account review, paired with a written record of who has access to what and a clear rule that any paid helper handles money only through documented receipts. Some Centers for Independent Living and state Arc affiliates offer abuse-prevention training for adults receiving services; ask. The training is usually free and accessible to autistic adults at varying communication levels.

If you suspect caregiver financial abuse, Adult Protective Services takes the report. The local police take the report. The provider agency’s compliance line takes the report. State Medicaid fraud control units take provider-side reports. Documentation, calmly assembled, makes the case. Patience and persistence make the outcome.

Where to report.

Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov, for any scam or fraudulent business. State Attorney General consumer protection division, varies by state. Adult Protective Services for any exploitation involving a vulnerable adult; the local APS hotline number is published on the state social services website. Local police for any in-person theft or coercion. The Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General at oig.ssa.gov for SSA-impersonation scams. The Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov for online fraud above $1,000. The FBI for elder fraud above the local police capacity. Multiple reports do not hurt; the case is more likely to be acted on when more than one agency has it.

What other states make easier.

Several states fund disability-specific financial-exploitation training programs through their Arc affiliates, Centers for Independent Living, and Aging and Disability Resource Centers. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Texas have particularly active programs. The AARP Fraud Watch Network offers free webinars and a hotline. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published guides specifically for caregivers of adults with disabilities. Michigan funds adequate APS coverage but with less consumer-facing prevention outreach. Other states made different choices. Michigan didn’t, as widely.

Your assignment this week.

Tonight, the credit freezes. This weekend, the monthly account review routine, on a recurring calendar entry. Within thirty days, two-factor on every account, daily spending limit on the ABLE debit card, the annual credit report check on the calendar for next year. Within sixty days, the “don’t tell anyone” conversation with the adult, practiced once with a fake scam call so the rule has a memory attached. None of this is exotic. None of it costs more than coffee and ten minutes. Scammers target loneliness, urgency, and unmonitored accounts. Fix those three. Other states make the fixing easier with public-facing training. Michigan didn’t. Now we know what we are fighting. Together.