Elder Abuse Awareness Day Highlighting Growing Problem for Older Americans
Published on June 14, 2024
•3 min read
June 15 is Elder Abuse Awareness Day, an annual day to stop and educate each other about what this abuse looks like and preventative actions we can all take.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), there has been a reported$1.6 billion in losses in elder abuse-related incidents nationwide between January to June of this year. That number is up almost $300 million compared to this time a year ago.
Nearly $90 million has been lost across New England, with 1,610 victims in Massachusetts losing $63,674,965 and New Hampshire’s 408 victims losing $11,339,097.
The FBI fears these totals may be higher because Americans aged 60 and above who are typical targets of these fraud or abuse situations typically don’t report out of embarrassment, not knowing how to report, or not even realizing what has happened.
What Does Elder Abuse Look Like
Elder Abuse can manifest in different ways: neglect or physical, emotional, and financial. Financial abuse has become increasingly common, especially in the digital era.
Scammers are targeting older Americans, often posing as family or government agencies, to get them to transfer money quickly. These transfer requests may be through a wire, buying gift cards, or getting the victim to share banking information. They target victims over the phone with a call or text, via email, or instant messaging on social media, typically.
Elder financial abuse can also happen closer to home. In the event of a physically or mentally impaired person, they can become an easy victim to someone who has access to their home and personal information. The perpetrator could be a family member, at home caregiver, and anyone who may have unlimited, unsupervised access to that person and their life.
What to Look Out For
The FBI says anyone can be a victim of a fraud or scam, so it’s important that you remain aware of these things for yourself, and your elderly loved one. Here’s what they want you to look out for:
- Be cautious of unsolicited phone calls, emails, texts, mailings, and door-to-door service offers.
- Resist the pressure to act quickly. Scammers create a sense of urgency to lure victims into immediate action, typically by instilling trust and inducing empathy or fear, or the promise of monetary gains, companionship, or employment opportunities.
- Never provide to unverified people or businesses any personally identifiable information, money, checks, or gift cards.
- Search online for contact information (name, phone number, email, physical address) of any unknown source that reaches out to you, as well as the proposed offer. Verify the legitimacy of the business and check to see if anyone has posted information online about individuals/businesses attempting to run scams.
- Take precautionary measures to protect your identity should a criminal gain access to your account or device. Immediately contact your financial institutions to place protections on your accounts and monitor for suspicious activity.
Reporting Elder Abuse
It is always important to report Elder Abuse to proper authorities, even if you don’t get your money back or don’t catch the perpetrator.
If you or elderly loved ones have discovered you’ve fallen victim to a financial scam or fraud, you will want to reach out to local and federal resources:
- Contact your local FBI office or report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
- You should include the name of the scammer/company, the dates and methods of contact and payment, where the funds were sent, and a detailed description of the interaction.
- Massachusetts residents should reach out to the Executive Office of Elder Affairs.
- New Hampshire residents should contact the Department of Health & Human Services.
For victims of financial elder abuse, they shouldalso immediately report the fraudulent transactions to their financial institution. The earlier the situation is reported, the better the odds are of doing something about it. Still, there is no guarantee that you can recover your losses once they’re sent.
Metro members are urged to reach out to us immediately once they’ve realized they’ve been scammed so we can help you through what’s next.
