Financial scams have become particularly prevalent in modern times, especially with how common technology is now.
Seniors are a particularly common victim of financial scams and are frequently targeted. This makes it important to find ways of avoiding senior scams.
One reason for this is that scammers often think that seniors are likely to have a significant amount of money in their bank accounts.
At the same time, seniors also tend to be vulnerable. Sometimes they may not realize that a scam or abuse is occurring and other times they may not be in a position where they can do anything.
A report by the Consumer Sentinel Network highlighted the seriousness of this problem. The report noted that there were 1.7 million fraud-related complaints for 2019. Only 13% of the reports from people aged 70 to 79 mentioned losing money, but when money was lost, the amount tended to be greater for seniors than for other age groups.
The prevalence of fraud means that seniors and their caregivers need to be very aware of how to spot suspicious claims and know what to do about them.
Thankfully, many scams are obvious if you know what to look for and there are good ways of avoiding senior scams.
Types of Elder Abuse and Scams
There are a number of different types of abuse and scams that can affect the elderly.
For example, elderly financial abuse by family members is surprisingly common and is frequently unrecognized.
Often family members may have full or partial access to the finances of a senior. Other times, family members may be close enough to the senior to convince the senior to give them money.
Beyond this, there are also a wide number of different scams.
Many of them sound legitimate at first glance.
For example, lottery or sweepstakes scams try to convince people that they have won some kind of competition. However, the catch is that seniors need to give some type of payment to be able to access that ‘prize’.
Seniors are also especially vulnerable to internet scams, such as the ones that try to trick people into downloading software or into buying something that they don’t actually need.
Good antivirus software, like this one, can help to protect you if you do download software that is unsafe.
Another type of internet scam to watch out for is phishing scams. Here, individuals are sent an email that tells them they need to update their details. The emails often appear to be from a legitimate site, like the IRS. This type of scam tries to get seniors to enter their information in an illegitimate site, so the scammers can get access to the information.
There are many other examples, including funeral scams, telemarketing scams, fake investment schemes, and homeowner scams.
These approaches try to trick seniors into spending money or giving out personal information – and they are successful far too frequency.
Thankfully, there are useful guides that can help you in identifying scams. One of these is Outsmarting the Scam Artists. This book is a little out of date these days, but it is associated with the AARP, which makes it an appealing choice. Besides, even though scams change over time, scammers tend to rely on the same techniques time-and-time again.
Another interesting choice is Scam Me If You Can, which was written by the same man who wrote Catch Me If You Can. Scam Me If You Can is more modern than the previous example. It contains a decent amount of actionable approaches you can use to protect yourself from scams.
Recognizing and Responding to Scams
Many people recognize scams after they have occurred, especially when the people involved actually take money.
However, this isn’t always the case.
If you’re focusing on avoiding senior scams, recognizing them after they have occurred is just as important.
Often, fast action following a scam can significantly reduce the impact that the scam has on the victim.
A key factor in recognizing scams is keeping an eye out for things that sound too good to be true. Most scams are actually pretty obvious once you stop and think about them.
A particularly challenging aspect in relation to elderly and scams is that caregivers may not always be aware when a scam has taken place.
As such, caregivers need to keep an eye out for signs that might suggest their relative has fallen victim to some form of scam or fraud. Some key signs to be aware of are:
- Key bills not being paid even when the senior should have sufficient income
- A large number of ‘free gift’ or sweepstakes-type mailings (as these offer an indication of the mailing lists that the senior is on)
- Unusual or unexplained changes in the financial practices of the senior
- Changes in the senior’s willingness to talk about income and/or finances
- The senior appearing more confused or afraid
- A caregiver that refuses to provide access to a senior
Seniors will often be embarrassed to talk about a scam, however, it is important that the topic is addressed.
In particular, there are a few steps that need to be taken as soon as possible following any cases of fraud, including:
- Calling the bank or the credit card company and cancelling any cards associated with the compromised account
- Resetting any personal identification numbers (PINs), especially if the same PIN is used on multiple cards
- Resetting online passwords, especially if the same or similar password was used multiple times
Delaying on these steps can potentially result in worse financial outcomes.
It is also important to be aware of the Elder Justice Act and Adult Protective Services, both of which can offer some support in cases of abuse.
These are particularly relevant in the case of elderly financial abuse by family members, but they are important resources for any type of scam or fraud.
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