A man in his mid-70’s was repeated scammed out of his life savings by crooks who found him to be an easy mark. His family, law enforcement, and other family advocates tried desperately to help him to understand that he was throwing him money away, yet the man continued to believe that the scammers were his friends and were going to send him money from investments.

Doug Shadel, Washington State director of AARP, who has studied why victims fall prey to these schemes, says that many fraud victims have suffered stressful setbacks, such as illness or losing a spouse or a job. Such experiences "take up cognitive capacity," he says. Once the scammers realize that they have found a vulnerable victim, they put his name on a “sucker list” that would be sold again and again to scammers in places like Canada, the United Kingdom, Jamaica and the Netherlands.

After a "sucker" is identified, the phone calls start. Sophisticated crooks, working from scripts, spend a lot of time getting to know their victims and building their trust. They learn where they go to church, what pets they have and their family situation, as well as details about retirement and bank accounts, home equity, life insurance and credit cards. Meanwhile, the victims begin to consider the callers their friends, and are eager to believe that they would send them money.

In a 2005 survey, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that 30.2 million U.S. consumers a year were victims of marketing frauds, led by bogus weight-loss products. Fraudulent foreign lottery schemes were second, reeling in more than three million victims a year, the agency estimated.  

 In recent years, the “fake check” scam has become lucrative for scammers.  Victims receive checks, supposedly as advance payments on purported winnings from foreign lotteries. Unsuspecting victims are told to deposit the seemingly real check and then to wire most of the money to scammers as soon as it shows up in their accounts.  When the counterfeit check actually bounces some days later, the victim is on the hook for the money, not the scammers.

Older adults are often unable to see “beyond the scam” because they grew up in an era of trust, when a cashier’s check was considered as good as cash. Impaired cognitive abilities might make it difficult for them to remember inconsistent details in the scammer’s stories, and they might become more easily frightened when a scammer threatens to call the police if they don’t send money.

Red flags that your loved one has been a victim:

• The victim receives a large quantity of junk mail, or mail that shouts “you are a winner!”

• The victim is secretive or evasive or refuses to talk about financial matters;

• The victim often comments that he is worried about money, or unhappy that he won’t be able to leave a large inheritance for the family;

• He comments that soon he will have plenty of money, or that he plans to buy things for family members that they obviously can’t afford;

• Notices arrive in the mail indicating that routine household bills have not been paid;

• The victim has confusion or evades your questions when you ask about a new friend that they have been talking with on the telephone or in person.

 

Ways to Help Someone who has been a Victim:

• Use the FTC’s “Do Not Call Registry” at http://www.DoNotCall.gov to register both land lines and cell phones.
• Put a short script next to the telephone to remind your loved one how to respond to calls from people that they do not know. The script could be a simple “I’m busy now and can’t talk.”
• Consider putting in a change of address for mail at the post office so that mail goes to a trusted friend or relative to check before giving it to the victim.
• Consider changing the victim’s phone number or cutting off the land line completely. A cell phone can be programmed so that the victim can dial quickly to a trusted friend or relative if they are worried or uncertain what to do.
• Gather scam mail into an envelope marked “Forward to Postal Inspector—suspected mail fraud” and put it in your mailbox. No postage is necessary.
• Consider hiring a “buddy” to take your loved one fishing, to the coffee shop or other outing so that they have someone safe to talk with if you can’t be with them as often as you like.
• Help the victim find new activities to fill the time that was previously spent talking to scammers or responding to mail.

If all else fails, consider asking the Court to appoint a family member or friend as their Guardian so that their financial records are maintained safely.

Adapted from Wall Street Journal article "A Family's Fight to Save an Elder from Scammers", June 17, 2009.