Elderly Victims of Scam Operations Urged to Share Their Stories

Dec 30, 2010
Mary King

Elderly Scam Victims Speak Out to Educate Others - fazen

Elderly folks make easy targets for scam operators, but senior victims can help family & peers to wise up. How? Share scam information and the experience.

Yes, it's embarrassing to tell others that instead of making a little extra money to supplement your monthly retirement income, you became the victim of a scam. What's worse is that at your age you should have known better, right? Not necessarily, but that's not the issue here. What's done is done and there is no way to change what's happened. However, there is a way to make something good of a bad situation. How do you do that? Tell the world all about the crime experience.

What Scam Artists Count on With Elderly Persons

Why do elderly people make such great targets for scams? Are seniors really that absent-minded? Is it because they get confused easily? Do they really give in to tempting mail offers, fake lotteries and get-rich-quick gimmicks to make easy money? Some do, some don't. Scammers are getting better and better at making phony offers look and sound authentic.

The one detail that makes elderly people stand out in a crowd of scam victims is embarrassment. Being "old enough to know better" keeps many elderly scam victims from reporting the crime, whether it's to the police, a grown child or a good friend. By keeping the crime a secret, the scam operation continues.

Tell Others About Your Scam Experience

Report the crime immediately to the police. There is no doubt it will be embarrassing, but you'll get through it. Inform your family of what's happened. Take any family criticism with a grain of salt and move on. Incidentally, they probably don't realize it yet, but your admission to falling for a scam is likely to make other family members more cautious. It might keep a loved one from getting scammed in the future. Talking about the incident has already done some good.

Tell friends about the scam operation; you may save one or more pals from the misery of becoming a victim. Do you belong to a group that meets regularly, such as a service or church group? If so, then ask the group's leader if you can have a few minutes to share your story. If there are 100 elderly (or younger) people at the meeting, that's 100 more who know to watch out for this specific scam operation and others like it. When a scam crime occurs close to home, people are likely to pay better attention so they can avoid becoming victims themselves.

Report the scam online to Consumer Fraud Reporting. This website offers information on how to report different types of scams, including online scams that can be reported to the U.S. Government's Internet Crime Complaint Center. There's an entire section dedicated to Nigerian email and lottery scams, money transfer frauds, lawyers with deceased clients and more.

What Can an Elderly Person do to Avoid Getting Scammed?

Check out every detail of a service, product, email or mail offer before becoming involved. Contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to see if a business or charity is authentic before making a commitment or donation. Here are some common rules for avoiding a scam:

Never trust anyone to perform a service for you or in your home without having the proper ID. Even if the person has some sort of ID, if you did not call for the help or service, then decline the offer.
Never give out personal information unless you make the contact and initiate the correspondence.
Stay alert to scam repairmen after a major event such as a hurricane.
Don't accept offers for seasonal workers trolling the neighborhood for work.
Never give money to a charity unless it's legitimate. Check with the BBB first.
Don't open emails with foreign addresses or get caught up in claims of lottery winnings, inheritances and sad stories of family members in jail.
Be aware of what's called the "grandparent scam."
Beware of health services scams, including Medicare fraud.
Decline offers to participate in fraudulent state-funded programs to be a mystery shopper.*

*Read more about the mystery shopper scam in the July/August 2010 AARP publication, AARP Bulletin. Contributing writer Sid Kirchheimer gives details in the article titled, "Skip This Shopping Spree" (p. 20). Kirchheimer writes, "Official-looking checks that purport to be from government agencies are the latest bait in mystery shopping scams – a ruse that promises easy money if you'll just visit local stores and restaurants and then evaluate prices and services."

Telling others that you've been victimized is one way of teaching others how to foil a scam operation. The more people made aware of the crime, the harder it is for the con man (or woman) to find and bait a victim. Elderly persons can help not only themselves, but can also help others to avoid becoming a scam victim or victim of identity theft. Step up and speak out against elderly crime; you'll be doing a great service by warning others in your community.