Scammers Preying on Seniors
Families of seniors most often have to worry about outsiders and even sometimes a unscrupulous family member preying on an older person. Seniors can be financially exploited by caregivers, relatives, scam artists, financial advisors, home repair contractors, guardians and others.
One of the many scams is the “Grandparents Scam”. A scammer will phone or email a grandparent claiming to be a friend of or the grandchild, who is in another state, Canada or overseas and is in desperate need of cash. The elderly person is persuaded to wire money or send a prepaid debit card.
Scammers are offering seniors “freebies”. They entice seniors to give up bank information by offering free gift certificates which of course they can only transfer the money into the senior’s bank account. To sweeten the deal they also offer a free medical alert bracelet.
Some con artists may attend a funeral of a stranger and claim there is a outstanding debt, and they are there to collect.
Seniors will often fall into these traps, because they feel consulting with a family member or confidant is somehow a loss of their independence. In addition once the scam has been discovered a senior may be reluctant to pursue legal action as they are too upset or embarrassed by the situation
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