Debra Foscolo: Protect seniors from fraud

You don’t need to go far in our community to hear the stories about seniors who have been scammed. Maybe it’s a call from a con-man posing as a grandson of an elderly woman, begging her for money to get out of a jam, or the older adult who unwittingly gives his or her bank account information to a thief, thinking he or she is talking to a bank staffer.

Local senior care experts like myself are urging families to be alert for scammers who may be targeting their senior loved ones with a variety of clever cons. What makes seniors such an attractive target? First, they are the fastest-growing segment of the population. Second, these older adults may be financially stable during an unsettled time in our economy.

According to experts, the top three crimes targeting seniors are identify theft, Medicaid/Medicare and medication fraud, and financial exploitation. The demographics of an aging population and the sophistication of scammers are adding up to big losses – financially and emotionally – for older adults.

The annual financial loss by victims of elder financial abuse is estimated to be at least $2.9 billion, a 12 percent increase since 2008, according to a 2011 MetLife study.*

That’s why the nonprofit National Association of Triads and the local Home Instead Senior Care office have launched a program to educate families and seniors about how to protect themselves called Protect Seniors from Fraud, which includes an informative website at ProtectSeniorsFromFraud.com

Included in the website’s resources is a Criminal Target Scale, which can help family caregivers assess how likely their senior is to be the potential target of a scam. A Senior Fraud Protection Kit also is available from the local Home Instead Senior Care office.

Below are a few tips to help keep seniors from being exploited:

✔ Shred documents that could be useful to criminals, including bank statements, credit-card statements and offers, and other financial information. Documents that need to be preserved, such as car titles, should be stored in a safe deposit box.

✔ Insist that your senior check with the Better Business Bureau before he or she acts on a phone call or a piece of mail or agrees to a visit from an unknown person, business or charity. Point out suspicious mailings, especially look-alike envelopes that mimic letters sent from the Social Security Administration or Internal Revenue Service. Fake correspondence sometimes comes with requests to pay late fees.

✔ Add seniors to the national Do-Not-Call Registry. Instruct them to hang up if they get solicitation calls. Address the guilt factor by reminding an older adult that it can be difficult to recognize a scam.

✔ Insist that your senior never give out personal information or money over the phone. The rule of thumb is to “never provide information in a phone call that you did not initiate.”

✔ Establish a strong defense by posting a “No Solicitation” notice by a senior loved one’s front door. Help your senior sort through his or her incoming mail. Watch TV with a loved one to monitor interest in infomercials or shopping shows.

✔ Remember that all new technology has a learning curve. Educate your senior loved one about email phishing tactics.

For more information about the Protect Seniors from Fraud program, call the local Home Instead Senior Care office at 407-445-8885 or visit ProtectSeniorsFromFraud.com

*The MetLife study of Elder Financial Abuse, June 2011, is available online at http://tinyurl.com/ElderFinancialAbuse

Debra Foscolo is the owner of the Home Instead Senior Care serving seniors in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.