Looking Out For And Reporting Elder Fraud
What scams should seniors and their caregivers look out for?
A 2020 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report says the most money lost in scams by senior adults in 2019 were romance scams. Senior’s reported total losses of nearly $84 million. Romance scams aren’t the only fraud that seniors and their loved ones should be on the lookout for. Online shopping, tech support, business imposter scams and others are often targeted towards seniors.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime website, many are too embarrassed or afraid to report these crimes, so many go unreported and victims suffer alone.
How to report elder fraud?
With more and more seniors becoming targets of scammers, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime has instituted the National Elder Abuse Fraud Hotline for people to report fraud against anyone age 60 or older.
The toll-free number of the National Elder Fraud Hotline is 833–FRAUD–11 or 833–372–8311.
Professional staff members are trained to handle scams and abuse targeting older people and are available every day from 6 a.m to 11 p.m. Eastern Time. With kindness and understanding, they assist victims in filing official local and state reports and help victims make official reports to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or the FTC.
Callers can remain anonymous, and friends, family and caregivers may call the hotline if fraud is suspected. Translation services are also available.
Reporting fraud as soon as possible is key to victims recovering their losses. In addition to the hotline victims should also report crimes to the local police, their financial institutions, state attorneys general, and in the case of home contractors, state licensing boards. Additionally, reporting crimes to the proper authorities will help others avoid becoming victims.