Starting in March, Social Security will require that all beneficiaries receive their payments electronically. This is a major change and has some seniors apprehensive. Financial matters can be very intimidating to some seniors and can make these seniors vulnerable to financial abuse. Financial scams targeting seniors are common. Elder financial abuse has many faces and can come from a stranger, a caregiver, and even a family member. Disturbingly, a growing number of these scams involve family members, relatives, or friends who steal money from an elder when the elder grants them a financial power of attorney.
Older Americans are vulnerable to fraud and financial abuse because they commonly experience some degree of cognitive decline either through natural causes or from medications, and can have difficulty understanding their changing world. The Internet, personal computers, appliances with complex controls, and other gadgets of contemporary life can accelerate disorientation of an aging mind, and seniors who spend most of their time at home can feel isolated and alone. These seniors can become vulnerable to elder financial abuse.
Elder financial abuse spans a broad spectrum of conduct, including:
- Taking money or property
- Forging an older person's signature
- Getting an older person to sign a deed, will, or power of attorney through deception, coercion, or undue influence
- Using the older person's property or possessions without permission
- Promising lifelong care in exchange for money or property and not following through on the promise
- Confidence crimes ("cons") are the use of deception to gain victims' confidence
- Fraud is the use of deception, trickery, false pretense, or dishonest acts or statements for financial gain
- Telemarketing scams. Perpetrators call victims and use deception, scare tactics, or exaggerated claims to get them to send money. They may also make charges against victims' credit cards without authorization
Seniors are targeted for the following reasons:
- Persons over the age of 50 control over 70% of the nation's wealth
- Many seniors do not realize the value of their assets (particularly homes that have appreciated markedly)
- The elderly are likely to have disabilities that make them dependent on others for help. These "helpers" may have access to homes and assets, and may exercise significant influence over the older person
- They may have predictable patterns (e.g. because older people are likely to receive monthly checks, abusers can predict when an older people will have money on hand or need to go to the bank)
- Severely impaired individuals are also less likely to take action against their abusers as a result of illness or embarrassment
- Abusers may assume that frail victims will not survive long enough to follow through on legal interventions, or that they will not make convincing witnesses
- Some older people are unsophisticated about financial matters
- Advances in technology have made managing finances more complicated
There are warning signs that you can look out for as a senior, or for someone you care about. If a senior has the appearance of a new best friend, an overreaching caregiver, a family member that you know has a substance abuse problem, or a relative that just shows up after years of not visiting the older American. Indicators are signs or clues that abuse has occurred. Some of the indicators listed below can be explained by other causes or factors and no single indicator can be taken as conclusive proof. Rather, one should look for patterns or clusters of indicators that suggest a problem.
Indicators include the following:
- Unpaid bills, eviction notices, or notices to discontinue utilities
- Withdrawals from bank accounts or transfers between accounts that the older person cannot explain
- Bank statements and canceled checks no longer come to the elder's home
- New "best friends"
- Legal documents, such as powers of attorney, which the older person didn't understand at the time he or she signed them
- Unusual activity in the older person's bank accounts including large, unexplained withdrawals, frequent transfers between accounts, or ATM withdrawals
- The care of the elder is not commensurate with the size of his/her estate
- A caregiver expresses excessive interest in the amount of money being spent on the older person
- Belongings or property are missing
- Suspicious signatures on checks or other documents
- Absence of documentation about financial arrangements
- Implausible explanations given about the elderly person's finances by the elder or the caregiver
- The elder is unaware of or does not understand financial arrangements that have been made for him or her
- Missing medications
Elder financial abuse can happen to any senior 50 plus. Look out for your friends and family for signs of this abuse. If you would like to know, more visit these websites for more information and signs that elder financial abuse is occurring:
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