Fraud is bad enough, but when you have family members or caregivers who are financially abusing their elderly relatives or patients, that’s downright despicable.
And yet, in most of the cases of elder financial abuse, the perpetrators are not strangers. Family, friends, neighbors and caregivers are the culprits in 55 percent of the cases, according to a report, “Broken Trust: Elders, Family, and Finances,” released by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. The report was produced in conjunction with the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and Virginia Tech University.
Law enforcement and securities officials say the recession is pushing more people to steal from well-off seniors.
“There is definitely more fraud than there has been,” said Fred Joseph, Colorado securities commissioner and president of the North American Securities Administrators Association. “Elder financial abuse is becoming the crime of the 21st century as the growing senior population is increasingly targeted.”
The annual financial loss by victims of elder financial abuse is estimated to be at least $2.6 billion, according to the report. The average victim of elder abuse is a woman over 75 who lives alone.
It’s not surprising that the more health issues seniors have, the more likely they will be victimized. As I searched media reports of abuse for just this year, I found numerous cases where family members and caregivers took advantage of seniors with dementia.
A nursing assistant from the state of Washington was charged with stealing more than $770,000 from the elderly woman she was caring for.
In a Florida case, a man called authorities to report his 80-year-old mother’s hairdresser had stolen her checks. The stylist was accused of taking $25,000 from the woman’s checking account. But get this. During the investigation, police charged the victim’s 52-year-old son — who first alerted police — with fraudulently cashing $6,900 in checks from his mentally incompetent mother.
Last month in Virginia, a home health caregiver was sentenced to six months in jail for taking $15,000 from an 85-year-old woman suffering from dementia. The victim was bed-ridden.
The financial abuse of seniors has become so prevalent that the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and the National Adult Protective Services Association recently united to develop tips and strategies to protect them.
Elder financial abuse can happen in a number of ways, according to the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.
There’s information on NASAA’s Web site that will assist you in helping seniors avoid these problems. Go to www.nasaa.org and search for “Senior Investor Resource Center.” To report elder abuse you can contact an Adult Protective Services office at www.apsnetwork. org or through the National Center on Elder Abuse at www.ncea.aoa.gov or (800) 677-1116.
“This type of crime just sets me off,” Joseph said. “You get victims who are in their 70s and 80s being taken for their life savings. What do they do? They can’t earn it back.”
If you suspect a senior is being financially exploited, report it — even if the suspected scoundrel is a family member.
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wercomin (anonymous) says…
Elder fraud is a great way to make money. Low life con artists prey on the the elderly because their generation still believe they can trust those in authority including elected
officials, lawyers, doctors and those who work for mobile home parks and nursing homes.
When my father was dying of alzheimers disease I discovered that there was a group of people in Sarasota Florida who were preying on the elderly. I contacted an attorney in Brick Township Ocean County New Jersey Edward Murachanian who I gave facts about this elder fraud.
I believed, this attorney Edward Murachanian being a former assistant prosecutor was a good choice to help bring these criminals to the attention of law enforcement. Boy was I wrong.
Edward Murachanian has been playing the deception card and has been running his own fraud scheme out of Fellowship Chapel Point Pleasant Beach New Jersey. Hey a former assistant prosecutor who will pray with you has to be good, right?
Wrong. Edward Murachanian proceeded to discredit and destroy my life and the lives of my 81 year old mother and 7 year old child.
How? Coming from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office
Murachanian has in place those in authority to do so.
The group in Sarasota Forida is the Mobile Estates Homeowners Association, Louise Prib, Laura Nolan, Lawyer Robert Smallwood, Lawyer Stephen Kurvin, Lawyer Christopher Likens, Ernest Buel and Janice Domiter.
One of their biggest con is not recording deeds of the elderly. Lawyer Robert Smallwood in particular has filed several affidavits stating that not recording the deeds was just and "oversight".
Report Elder Fraud and Elder Abuse to the FBI in Washington, DC.