The FTC's alert of October 26 describes a call that tells someone they have won a charity-sponsored sweepstakes, and implies the win is linked to a past donation. The alert asks how a person can tell whether the prize is real.
The page excerpt available for this review does not say what payment the caller asks for, so the point here is the shape of the call.
It is built to feel familiar. A person who has given to a charity may be glad to hear from one, and the reference to a past donation makes the caller seem to know them. That warmth is what a family can plan against.
The plan does not need to be clever. It needs to be agreed before the phone rings, and short enough that your parent can remember it while a friendly voice is talking.
Decide how money moves, in advance
A rule agreed in a calm moment is easier to keep than a decision made on a call. Two recent cases show the payment routes callers push.
A San Diego ring that the U.S. Attorney announced on October 26 had victims mail cash to made-up names at short-term rentals. A Tucson sentencing reported on October 29 described victims sent to gold, gift cards and bitcoin ATM deposits.
One rule to cover them all
Write the routes on one list: cash in the mail, gold, gift cards, crypto machines. The rule is that none of them is ever used to pay anyone who called first. It does not matter whether the caller says prize, charity, bank or government.
The list does the work so your parent does not have to judge the caller.
Keep it a family rule
Frame it as something you all follow, so it is not about your parent's judgment. Say you have a rule too, and mean it: follow it yourself.
People hold to a shared habit more easily than to advice, and a parent can use the rule as a polite reason to end a call: "My family has a rule, so I can't."
If this is your family
Write the four routes on a card by the phone: mail, gold, gift cards, crypto machines. The sentence for your parent to use on any caller is: "My family has a rule about how we pay, so I can't do that." Then hang up and call you.
Sources
Federal Trade Commission, October 26, 2026: Spot scammers impersonating well-known charities and sweepstakes
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of California, October 26, 2026: Final Defendants Plead Guilty in $65 Million Multinational Fraud Ring Targeting Thousands of Seniors
KVOA, October 29, 2026: Judge sentences man to 8 years in $2.4M Tucson fraud scam