Got a Fraud Protection booklet for older adults in the mail from my Credit Union.
It says it's based on a Comparitech Study, May 2023, so I looked for it online.
This article has basically the same information: scams and hotlines you can call.
For you and relatives and friends.
https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/elder-fraud/
How to avoid and detect elder fraud
Elder fraud, which is also known as elder financial exploitation or elder financial abuse, is the abuse of financial control or misappropriation of financial resources, resulting in harm to an elderly victim, in a relationship where the perpetrator is in a position of trust.
A Comparitech study found that while more than 200,000 elder fraud scams are reported to US authorities each year, resulting in an estimated $1.17 billion in damages, this is likely only part of the story. Based on our study findings, we estimated that the real number of annual elder fraud cases in the US was closer to 5 million, equating to roughly $27.4 billion in damages.
In this post, we explain more about what elder fraud is, why the elderly are targeted in scams, and what you can do to prevent elder fraud.
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