Last week's holiday booking scam is still spreading. The ABC reported that travellers to Broome got WhatsApp messages with their real booking details. Some were fooled at first. If one reaches you, you know what to do.

This week is about the scam that costs older Australians the most by far: investment scams. You'd probably never fall for the obvious ones. But new figures show the average loss to an investment scam has risen 36% so far this year, to $76,719. Those people weren't careless. They did their homework. The scam was built to pass it.

You see an ad or an article about an investment. You look the company up, and everything checks out: a professional website, good reviews, even an Australian financial services licence number.

A friendly "account manager" calls and you start small. Your online account shows your money growing, and you might even get a small payout. So you invest more.

When you try to withdraw, there are delays and new fees. Then the website disappears.

This happened to real Australians. Last month the ABC reported on Main Group FX, which investors trusted because it had a genuine financial licence. Payments stopped and nobody could get their money out. One Perth retiree had to sell her home. ASIC is investigating the company that lent the licence, which denies doing anything wrong.

Scammers know careful people check. ASIC warns they now use AI to create fake websites, news stories and reviews, and they borrow real licence numbers. A quick search isn't enough anymore.

Call your bank straight away, using the number on the back of your card. Don't pay anything to "release" your money, and ignore anyone offering to recover it for a fee.

Phones come out of the box set up for people with perfect eyesight and hearing. The good news is they’re full of settings to fix that, tucked away in a menu called Accessibility. Don’t let the name put you off. These are comfort settings, and plenty of younger people use them too.

Each one takes under a minute, and you can switch any of them back off if you don’t like it.

This is the one most people wish they’d found sooner.

Menus in dim restaurants, medicine labels, the fine print on a bill. Your phone can zoom in and light it up.

Tired eyes at the end of the day? Your phone can read articles, emails and messages out loud.

Most people know you can turn on subtitles for a movie. Fewer know your phone can write its own subtitles for anything with speech: a video a friend sent, a voice message, a podcast, and on many phones, even a phone call. The words appear in a small box on screen as people talk.

This one surprises people. Your phone can listen for important sounds around the house, like a smoke alarm, the doorbell, someone knocking or a tap left running, and buzz you with a message when it hears one. Handy if you’re in the garden, have the TV up, or take your hearing aids out at night.

It’s a helpful extra, not a replacement for working smoke alarms, so keep those tested as usual.

Every phone brand puts these in slightly different places, especially on Android. If you can’t find one, tap the search bar at the top of your Settings and type the name (for example “font size” or “live caption”). It’ll take you straight there.

And if you get stuck, hit reply and tell me which phone you have. I’m happy to point you in the right direction.

Let me know if there's something you want to know more about. Reply to this email, I read every one, and it might help someone else too.

Until next time,
John

P.S. Know someone who's been looking into investments lately? Forward them this email before they transfer anything.
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