Senior Citizens Beware of Scammers/Fraudsters

Every year, senior citizens in this country are being swindled out of billions of dollars. In a survey conducted by the Investor Protection Trust, the Investor Protection Institute and the American Bar Association, 34 percent of lawyers polled said they are dealing with or expect to have senior clients who have been exploited.

A few years ago, the Investor Protection Trust released a survey that found that more than7.3 million Americans older than 65 already had been victims of fraud. And a recent MetLife survey estimated that seniors older than 60 have lost nearly $3 billion a year to financial abuse. And surprisingly, much of this abuse is not from strangers.

There are lots of scams targeting senior citizens, and according to the experts, some of the more popular ones are: prizes/sweepstakes, investments, charity contributions, loans and mortgages, health, funeral and life insurance. 

Most elderly victims of financial abuse don't report fraud because they are either too ashamed, don't realize they are being duped until it's too late to get their money back, or their adult children fail to recognize the problem in time to intervene.

On today’s episode of Your Money. Your Matters, we’ll discuss the issue of scams against senior citizens and what can be done to protect them.

Your Money. Your Matters is a weekly show broadcasting every Tuesday from 11 a.m. to noon Central Time. The program features radio personalities Linda Webb-Mañon and Rick Grady, Cornerstone Credit Union League; Courtney Moran, Cornerstone Credit Union Foundation, and Todd Mark, Consumer Credit Counseling Services.