elder abuse

04Oct

Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation: What Are They?

BlogOctober 4, 2022

Unfortunately, financial abuse and exploitation is a reality many seniors face in their retirement. Strikingly, financial institutions have reported the number of these incidents tripling since 2017. And no matter how big or small the deception may be, it leaves elders financially and even emotionally devastated.

The question remains: how can you protect yourself and your loved ones from it? Having a solid understanding of what elder financial abuse and exploitation is, how to spot red flags, and what preventative measures can be put in place is a great place to start.

What is elder financial abuse and exploitation?

Elder financial abuse and exploitation are when someone within the elder’s life misuses or takes advantage of their assets for their own benefit. Oftentimes, it is done without the consent or knowledge of the victim and can leaves them without significant financial resources they worked hard to save. The worst part is family, friends, or even caregivers can commit elder abuse or financial exploitation. It is not uncommon for force, harassment, or threats to be involved either.

Why does elder financial abuse go unreported?

It is estimated billions of dollars per year is lost to elder abuse and financial exploitation. And sadly, financial exploitation can be even harder than physical elder abuse to detect. Circumstances vary and warning signs are not always prevalent.

There are four major reasons why the financial abuse goes unreported:

A trusted family member or caregiver is the abuser
Vulnerable older adult doesn’t know it happened until too late
Victim experiences overwhelming shame
Elder doesn’t know who to tell or where to report

The abuser may be someone the senior relies on for basic needs and care and fearing further abuse and retaliation is often part of the situation to why the abuse goes unreported. A victim’s lack of mentality or physical ability also factors into why the abuse may go unreported.

Reporting the exploitation and abuse can be a very overwhelming experience. And the process varies immensely state to state. Fortunately, your local adult protective services can help guide you through the process for you or a loved one and point you to resources you didn’t even know of.

01Jun

Why Retirees are Targeted Most by Scammers

BlogJune 1, 2022

Annually, an estimated 3.5 million retirees fall victim to financial exploitation. Scammers take advantage of elders due their vulnerability. Those who are 80+ are the most at-risk group for scammers. Ruthless and always on top of trends and the latest news, scammers will try to pull a fast one via the phone, targeted emails, or even through websites.

Why are seniors targeted more than any other age group?

Money, Money, Money

With decades of saving and planning, elders are more particularly targeted due to being the wealthier, more established society members. Also, more likely to have own their homes outright, elder Americans have approximately 1.7 times the wealth than the working middle class due to their savings.

Loneliness Leads to Vulnerability

Retirees are usually empty nesters, and oftentimes loneliness leads to isolation as family grows and friends get older, too. This makes the perfect breeding ground for con artists to build a relationship with elders especially telephone scammers. Elders are always happy to get a call and are more than willing to listen to their narratives. Once the scammer can gain the retirees trust they have an easier time exploiting.

Cognitive Issues

Unfortunately, with aging comes cognitive decline. Even though seniors are reporting scams more often than younger folks, they have a harder time remembering the little details necessary. What makes matters worse is that seniors do not realize that they were scammed until sometimes weeks after the fact. Memory loss presents first with haziness, and short-term memory is the first to experience issues.

Other Health Issues Make Easy Targets

Easy for health scams, seniors are more likely to have other health issues such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, and limited mobility. The health scams will target retirees with fake remedies for these issues since they are seen as personal.

Retirement Staples

As the baselines to retirement, Medicare and Social Security are very important to seniors to maintain their health and finances. If a call or email comes through for these programs talking about issues elders are very prone to panic. The panic-inducing targeting gets retirees to act out of fear for losing their benefits or insurance. Retirees are more likely to share their information to scammers when something that important is threatened.