Elder Couple with Bills

Claiming to be from Social Security may give scammers a better chance of getting your assets. Federal authorities say they have seen a number of scammers move away from claiming to be IRS agents to claiming to be from Social Security, according to The New York Times in “Latest Rash of Calls Come From ‘Social […]

man handcuffed by the police

Predatory marriages are on the increase and one state works toward a solution. A predatory marriage, which is when one party is lacking capacity and is exploited by another party into a marriage, is a form of elder financial abuse, according to the New York Law Journal in “Predatory Marriages and the Elderly: A Legislative […]

red telephone

A serious tone and strong script are working for scammers. The Federal Trade Commission warned late last year that scamming against the recipients of Social Security topped more than 35,000 complaints and now the  AARP Bulletin reports in “How Social Security Scammers Tried to Swindle a Fraud Expert” that those calls continue to increase. The […]

red telephone

Elderly man pays $4,000 for bogus inheritance in the millions. The Times News tells a cautionary tale to seniors, who are often targeted by scammers, and their adult children, who need to protect their aging parents in the article “Elderly Hawkins man loses $4K in phony $89.5 million inheritance scam“. The story begins with the […]

senior couple talking

Regulators move to halt abuse. However, fraud is still at $30 billion. Financial abuse of the elderly is high in the U.S., with estimates at $30 billion and that sum doesn’t include unreported cases, according to Consumer Reports in “3 Critical Ways to Prevent Elder Financial Abuse“. Some crimes remain unreported, because elderly people are […]

question mark

Scam artist targets woman who is grieving for her husband. Scammers work on the easiest targets, so senior citizens are often their targets in hopes they will catch them off guard at their weakest moments, according to Newsday in “Nassau, Suffolk police warn of phone scammers posing as officials”. The article details the experiences of […]

Senior woman contemplating

Early signs of the loss of a customer’s mental agility may be recognized by banking personnel. New federal legislation gives banks and financial institutions new tools to join in the efforts to halt the ever-growing problem of elder financial abuse, according to The Wall Street Journal in “Banks Monitor Older Customers for Cognitive Decline“. Financial […]

senior couple standing together

You cannot control the action of an adult child, but you can prepare for it. No matter how close family members may be, they do not always agree with your viewpoints and that can create some real problems in later years. However, those problems can be avoided, according to “Aging parents can protect against unwanted […]

Senior woman contemplating

The new law goes a long way in protecting the elderly from the increasing threat of scams. Elder financial abuse is very costly totaling billions of dollars annually, as well as taking a heavy emotional toll on the elderly as the scams become more sophisticated, according to Forbes in “After SAFE Act Passage, The Battle […]

Business Meeting Notes

A new rule designed to prevent financial abuse of the elderly requires additional information. FINRA, a self-regulatory agency for brokers, has just implemented a new rule to help stop the financial abuse of the elderly even before it begins, according to Consumer Reports in “New Ways to Prevent Elder Financial Abuse.” Financial abuse often goes […]