Is Elder Abuse Preventable?
I previously posted a new article from Consumer Reports on the cost of financial exploitation. Consumer Reports also ran an article about whether elder abuse is preventable. Lies, Secrets, and Scams: How to Prevent Elder Abuse. Seniors and their families lose billions of dollars each year to heartless fraudsters. Learn how you can help ran September 28, 2015. The article opens with a victim of the grandparent scam. Looking at the proliferation of financial exploitation, the article notes
Estimates of the crime’s frequency vary. A 2010 survey of seniors by the nonprofit Investor Protection Trust projected that 1 in 5 seniors had been taken advantage of financially. A study last year in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that 4.7 percent of Americans—about 1 in 20—reported that they had been financially exploited in their later years. The study provided perspective: If a new disease struck that same percentage of older Americans, researchers wrote, “a public health crisis would likely be declared.”
The article discusses why elders are targets “[o]lder people’s vulnerabilities—including isolation, loneliness, generally trusting natures, relative wealth, and in some cases declining mental capabilities—make them ideal quarry for con artists. Even those whose cognition is intact can be swayed if they’re stressed or depressed, or recently have lost a loved one.” The article paints a bleak picture regarding projection, noting that s “as baby boomers age, the pool of potential victims will expand, with assets ripe for the pickpocketing.” The article reviews the reasons why victims may not report the exploitation, how the perpetrators work a scam and why some victims are exploited multiple times.
The article covers some successes when the victims (or families) report the crime and initiatives to fight elder abuse, mentioning specifically the DOJ elder justice initiative. The article concludes with photos and summaries of stories of 8 victims and a list of agencies that may help.