What a great question and rich topic. Thanks for asking. I'm in the same boat with mom. She lives alone and is a very high trust person so she picks up every phone call and reads every email with uncritical optimism. I'm horrified every time I see what new apps she has installed and truly have no idea where she finds them - "It just popped up!"

I've done a ton of things here but the latest that has actually given me some piece of mind is setting up a financial aggregator app with all her accounts + some basic notification rules for withdrawals >$X connected to my email. Obviously this requires a lot of trust from your parent, a lot of trust in Plaid (which I hate and worry about), and doesn't fully protect against the worst cases since it's reactive not preventive. But it's felt like a good backstop at the very least.

This entire process has been so frustrating and nerve-racking that I'd happily pay quite a bit for a "digital security for seniors" service if something like that existed.

Good luck!