One of the things that has become clear to me over the years in the senior care industry is that it is ripe for abuse, which is extremely sad, and unfortunate. Historically, seniors have been a group that have been easy targets for those who have shifty intentions. The internet has made malfeasance all the more easy.
Assisted Living Directory has been on a mission lately to create a safe place to research senior care, and as of late, we have started a new branch to our site – pointing out how to minimize risk, and ways to research safely. We are also offering safety tips and suggestions on things to look for, and to stay away from as you conduct your research.
Our Safety Tip For the Week:
One of the most common characteristics of a bad-intentioned senior care website that might not be immediately obvious to seniors, families and caregivers is that most assisted living and senior care websites out there that are designed with the sole purpose of getting your money, or information – will not list, or display who is behind the website, who owns it, or if any ‘experts’ have contributed to it.
Ask yourself this simple question as you are on different senior websites: Who is behind this site, and who authored the information?
If a site genuinely has experts behind it, and insights from professionals, caregivers, assisted living facility administrators and the like, you can bet that the site will be proud to show that off via bios, authorship tagging, and easily findable data on who owns and publishes the website.
If you cant find this information, and it if is a complete mystery as to who is behind a website, and where your personal information will go should you submit it – we’d advise you to back out of the site, and move on.
Fraud and abuse is rampant out there, especially online, and anonymous websites are anonymous for a reason. Be careful out there!
