Con artists are a growing problem in our society, cheating thousands of older Americans out of their life savings on a regular basis. A report last year by insurer MetLife Inc. estimated the annual loss by victims of elder financial abuse at $2.9 billion, compared with $2.6 billion in 2008, according to a recent Associated Press report.
The elderly are targeted because they’ve typically built up substantial savings and they are generally easier to exploit than other segments of the population, partly because they tend to be at home to get the scam phone calls.
Locally, a Jamaican telephone lottery scam was recently brought to light in which the perpetrators call and befriend the victims to encourage them to send money to claim their prize. Police say the scammers are particularly coercive in their tactics and have a way of convincing people to keep the money transfers secret from their family. All those things that would normally be red flags ”“ encouraging lying to family, sending money to get money, constant calls to build rapport ”“ are handled so convincingly by these con artists that victims don’t even think twice. The elderly are particularly vulnerable because they are often lonely enough to clasp on to even a conversation with a stranger, and it’s been proven that our financial capacities decline with age.
Today’s aged population also grew up in a different time, a time when you knew your neighbors and could take someone at their word. The baby boomer generation and those to follow are more aware of Internet phonies, bait-and-switch schemes and scams, so hopefully they’ll be wary enough to simply hang up the phone when those calls come in. But the next generation of scamming remains to be seen and perhaps they will change their tactics to snare this new crop of victims.
It’s not easy to bring scammers to justice when they operate from outside the country, and they are difficult to track. In the end, the only approach that will truly help combat these scams is knowledge. The more people speak up about this scourge and the more federal and state agencies do to spread the word, the less likely people are to fall for these scams.
The FBI has stepped up to the challenge, putting out releases about the various scams it is fighting through its Internet Crime Complaint Center. The AP reported that “the center received more than 300,000 complaints last year, reflecting close to a half-billion dollars in losses, with 45 percent of the toll borne by people over 50.”
Perhaps the saddest part about elder financial abuse is that it’s not limited to far-away strangers reaching out for money orders. Oftentimes, seniors are robbed by their own family or caretakers.
The Associated Press reported that the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed the Office of Older Americans as part of its mission and will be addressing the issue of theft by family and trusted advisors. Guidelines on how to ethically handle an older person’s finances will be written up in the hopes of dissuading people from cashing in on some of their inheritance early, among other offenses.
We hope the victims of such scams continue to speak out and spread the word, however embarrassing it may be, and the federal agencies will make a continued effort to share fact sheets that detail how these scammers operate. Knowledge is power, and if more people know the tactics, they’ll be less likely to fall for them when that call or email comes in.
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Today’s editorial was written by Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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