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You didn't mention if she really has dementia or Alzheimers. If she does, then it is her confusion that made her pay for those things. There are 2 factors. I learned from the example of my father-in-law in 2005. One factor for him was that he was never sound financially and it was his late wife that handles the money so he is financially incompetent in the age of 87. That made him decide on the wrong reasons. The second factor is his confusion and Alzheimers. So in your Mom's case, maybe she was misled by the sweeptakes that she thought she was winning. There are frauds out there trying to cheat on seniors also. You can take away her financial power so she cannot write a check to them anymore. Maybe you can act as her POA and take charge of her money. If she is very confused, then she needs someone nearby to make sure she acts for her own interest, but is not cheated. Actually there are lots of products in the market that are on sale. My father-in-law bought lots of fancy vitamin on the phone and yet he always forgot to finsih it. I think at first he didn't like the way it is (he needs to chew pills) so he stopped taking them. Next time, he forgot about his trouble of taking them and ordered them again! It is like $70 at least each time. Finally he stopped all these habits. One time I had to cancel his order of this subscription of video professor kits which were useless and kept coming for hiim, but he cannot use his computer anymore. We took the hard way - we waited until he was more confused so the caregiver can take over or we can take over. I need to watch out and make sure he didn't pay for something that is not right. Now he still has 2 checkbooks with him and he sleeps with them!! But he has no debit or  credit cards whatsoever. It helps a lot.   The best thing is for you to take over so she does not pay for any junk anymore. Some people close the account so the seniors cannot play with it anymore. As the person with dementia will get worse, there is no point for her to handle finances by herself because it would only be unsafe for her finances.   A friend of mine, her mom-in-law has Alzheimers, and her MIL was also paying large amount of money to this saleperson so the son had to stop it (the money was gone or so) and send her mail to a PO box so she cannot have access to it. These steps seem cruel and the seniors would not like it, but we have no choice because money issue is very important.   Good luck,Nina