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Know the warning signs for scams targeting older adults, money mismanagement associated with aging By Ed Carroll
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middle-aged widow with adult children but who lives alone strikes up a Facebook flirtation with a man. He has a handsome profile picture and fills a void in her life. She feels a connection to this man and develops feelings, which she believes he reciprocates, though he tells her others wouldn’t understand their love. He wants to be with her, but there’s this nagging legal issue he needs to clear up – it’s a total misunderstanding, he swears – and he needs some money before he can come and be with her. He keeps asking for more and more money, before he disappears. He’s not who he says he is – he’s a scammer, running a romance con. Scams that revolve around this type of story are considered “imposter scams” – the No. 1 fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network, which cost consumers more than $667 million in 2019, and that’s only the amount reported to the FTC. It can be hard to talk about money, no matter your age or if you’re a parent or a child. It’s even harder to talk about the embarrassment of being taken advantage of financially. Unfortunately, scams and scammers exist and though Jon Miller Steiger, East Central region director of the FTC in Cleveland, says people of all ages can be scammed, imposter scams similar to the romance con tend to hit older Americans more – and harder. According to the FTC, the median loss in a scam for a person in their 20s is about $448, but the median for a person in their 70s is about $800. Steiger says even though older Americans tend to be perceived as easier targets for a variety of reasons, there’s no reason to be ashamed of being scammed, because scammers target anyone and everyone. “The scammers are professionals,” Steiger says. “I think what is unique to older Americans is they fear if they talk to anyone
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about being victimized, their liberty will be at risk. That’s the most dangerous thing, when someone keeps it to themselves and tries eno to deal with it on their own.” He says he thinks it is an incorrect assumption that falling victim Power o Power of to a scam is an indication of a cognitive issue. Thus, approaching They wer the older adult to discuss such scams with that sensitivity in mind They were approach can be helpful, whether one is already a victim or the talk is a approach. enough. T preventative measure. enough. “I also found it’s helpful to look on our website (FTC.gov) to find info about the scam,” Steiger says. “If an adult child comes to that Safet conversation (and) they say, ‘this is what this scam looks like, Mom. Ambu It sounds like what you went through, Mom, you can see how this Daily works,’ (that’s) much more effective.” Alzhe Rachel Kabb-Effron, a certified elder law attorney at The Kabb Law Firm in Beachwood, says keeping the lines of communication open between older parents and adult children is important, but sometimes the older parents need to keep some aspects of their finances private. “Sometimes the kids are the ones using the parents as a bank,” she says. “I see that much more than parents getting scammed by outsiders.” She says from her perspective, the biggest issue is when older adults do begin to show signs of a cognitive issue and start “hoarding the financial documents” because they were scammed, or need help with their finances but are ashamed to talk about it. “Whether it’s a scam or needing help to pay the bills, this
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