Top Scams Against Older Adults
By Paula Spencer Scott, Caring.com senior editor
Think your loved one's assets are safe? Don't be so sure. Financial scams against older adults are now so prevalent that the National Council on Aging (NCOA) calls them "the crime of the 21st century."
The problem is so pervasive that NCOA has compiled a list of the ten top scams out there. The top five:
1. Healthcare/Medicare/health insurance fraud
Criminals may pose as Medicare representatives to lure older people into giving them their personal information, or they'll provide bogus services for elderly people at makeshift mobile clinics. They then use the personal information provided to bill Medicare and pocket the money illegally.
2. Counterfeit prescription drugs
Since 2000, the FDA has investigated an average of 20 such cases per year, up from five a year in the 1990s. Crooks advertise and provide fake drugs to people looking on the Internet for bargains. Aside from wasting money, victims may purchase unsafe or harmful substances.
3. Funeral and cemetery scams
Scammers read obituaries and call or attend the funeral service of a complete stranger to claim to the widow or widower that the deceased had an outstanding debt with them. Or disreputable funeral homes may capitalize on family members’ unfamiliarity with funeral service costs to add unnecessary charges to the bill. For example, the funeral directors may insist that a pricey casket is necessary even when performing a direct cremation. (It's not. Learn how to avoid common high-cost funeral traps).
4. Fraudulent anti-aging products
Fake Botox and completely bogus homeopathic remedies that do absolutely nothing are common examples. (Safer: These dermatologist's 5 best anti-aging tips.)
5. Telemarketing
As a group, older adults make twice as many purchases over the phone than the national average -- making them vulnerable to these very common and hard-to-trace scams. Two examples: The fake-accident ploy, in which the con gets the victim to send money for a relative who's supposedly in the hospital and needs cash, or charity scams following national disasters, where money is solicited for fake charities.
Rounding out the NCOA list: Internet scams, investment schemes, reverse mortgage scams, sweepstakes and lottery scams, and a particularly low form it calls "the grandparent scam" -- in which the con artist calls and says, "Hi Grandma, do you know who this is?" and tries to worm his or her way into Grandma's heart and pocketbook.
To protect your loved one, get to know the top 10 elder fraud prevention methods and see more tips on how to protect older family members from fraud.
Another scam on seniors in and around Jacksonville Florida is where a senior is approached when a tire is flat, or the car won't start, or when the stranger mentions something he sees wrong with the car. The con man then mentions he can help them but will need some parts or materials to make either a full repair or a "patch" until the car can be driven to an auto repair shop. The seniors typically give these con men from $20 to $200 for helping them and to purchase the items the con-man says they need. Do not delay...if your car has a problem call your road service, like Triple A. Write down the con man's description, license plate, whatever and turn it in to police if this person asks for, suggests you pay for parts or outright demands money "for his efforts." You can trust no one these days; these jerks have also been known to initiate a car jacking in the process elsewhere. Again, call someone you know and ask their help...you cannot trust strangers; you may get hurt if you do, financially or otherwise.
I'm torn between my desire to share a recent experience where my parents were nearly scammed and a creepy feeling that if I post too much detail, it might encourage or inform a potential scammer. Suffice it to say, then, that I'd just forwarded this article to my mother and talked about it with her (and she'd actually read it). Then, while visiting them, the phone rang and someone posing as one of my children called and tried to pull the Grandparent scam! I was right there, listening to my mother, planning to chastise her later. Because even after all of the hype, she'd answered in the way described in the article, giving the caller an "in"! As I say, I'm torn about telling too much about what happened in case bad people read this for insight, so I'll just add that a) it went along exactly as described in the article and b) even when I did the "give me the phone" thing and spoke to this crook myself, it was hard to hang up on him. I knew it was a scam, but as a mother, I didn't want to turn my back on one of my kids (even though I knew it wasn't one of my kids). I'm just saying that even with all that preparation and skepticism and knowledge, it was still hard to hand up on him. I can only imagine the pressure on an older person who hasn't been informed. We were all very uncomfortable for a good long time after the call. It was very, very creepy.
I stand corrected...since I am myself almost 65 years old, I was mis-informed by a now former tax customer (I fired him...he thought he'd assist me in playing the fool...now he knows how angry I can become when someone knowingly mis-informs me). He is a lawyer...but he is not my lawyer anymore...nor will he be to any of my other tax clients. Please accept my sincerest apologies. My other postings are based upon my experience and not on any advice for information from any other party.
Nursing homes are on the list. They need investigation by the State. LPN's are handing out meds and are NOT being supervised. My mother was given Boniva lying down and she is now paying $100's in meds, the inconvenience of having to take Carofate 4 X's/day 2 hrs before or after meals/meds, not to mention the suffering. Instead of the Dr chastizing the nurse he yelled at me and asked,"If she knew so much about Boniva, why didn't SHE say something?" I replied, "First of all, she just had a stroke, 'Hello'! (Is anyone home? I felt like adding), Second, it was given to her while she was sleeping at 6am, Third, the nurse didn't tell her what she was given and 4th She shouldn't have to tell the nurse how to give her meds. What about the ones with Alzheimers or the ones who don't know?:" Nursing homes are a big money making mill for the Dr's and the administrators. The money is not going to patient care. They are short and hiring LPN's. When I confronted the LPN about my mother's blood pressure being 186 I asked him what he was going to do about it? He said, "Nothing, she has a history of high blood pressure". I said, "Not that high. That is dangerously high". Then he realized he hadn't given her her blood pressure pill. He actually told me this! She was also made to wait in pain since 5AM with a bladder infection. Nothing was done, a remark was put in for the Dr. to read the NEXT day at 10:30 when they came in. I insisted the Dr on call be notified right then. The LPN went against his orders (to give her Bactrim AM and PM) and was going to give it at 9PM. He still waited 45 min after I paged the Dr and the Dr told him to give it NOW. No one is held accountable. Patients are made to wait 45 min for pain meds or go to the bathroom (probably why the bladder infection). But most of all, there are too few Dr.s to see 100's of patients. They want it that way so they can make the big bucks. We all need to write our State Rep and State Senator to have this changed.
It was based upon additional information, not available in the original posting on this subject.
@Tom Blair EA: your comment on the 3.8% real estate tax is incorrect. Per politifact.com, the real information is: Both the chain e-mail and the blog post are deceptive, and here's why: Instead of being a sales tax on all real estate transactions, the 3.8 percent tax is actually a tax on investment income for the wealthy. It applies only to the investment income of single taxpayers who make more than $200,000 or couples who make more than $250,000. (We looked it up in Section 1402 of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, titled "Unearned income Medicare contribution.") Still, maybe empty-nesters are scared they'll be hit with this tax if they sell their homes for more than $250,000. But that's not a likely scenario for most tax payers, because there's a long-standing tax exemption on the profits from home sales. To be hit with the new tax, you would have to clear more than $250,000 in profit off your home, which means at least $250,000 more than you paid for it. And the ceiling is even higher for a married couple. Married couples are not taxed on the first $500,000 of profit from home sales. Again, that's profit, not the sales price. When we first reported on this e-mail last year, we rated the chain e-mail's claim Pants on Fire, because it was written to deceive people into thinking that all home sales would be taxed. That wasn't the case then, and it's still not the case. Only high-earners will have to pay the tax, and then only if profits from the housing sale exceed the legal exemptions from taxes. We're not the only ones to have debunked the chain e-mail's claims. Factcheck.org concluded in April that the tax "falls on relatively few — those with high incomes from other sources. " The urban legends site Snopes.com also debunked the claim that it was a tax on all real estate sales. To be sure, the health care law does include new taxes. But the taxes won't hit most retirees looking to downsize their homes, except those who are also among the nation's highest earners. Because it seems aimed at scaring older Americans, we rated the e-mail's claim Pants on Fire. Our rating stands.
Did anyone in this growing article mention that IF YOU SELL YOUR HOME or ANY REAL ESTATE PROPERTY AFTER 2012 that you will pay a 3.8% (that's $3,800 per $100,000 of selling price) regardless if you are selling it at a profit or at a loss. It is a portion of the 2008 health care bill (commonly called "Obama-Care") that kicks in during tax year 2013) less than two months after the November 2012 federal elections? I present this in evidence of my original posting about IRS preying upon seniors as well as other American taxpayers.
When I started taking care of my mother I noticed she was receiving phone calls a few times each week from charities asking for donations. They had been calling her continuously and she had been giving money out of her fixed income to support them. Many of them only provide 10% of the collected funds to the charity. Another scam I found was credit cards. Capitol One had my mother's interest rate up to 26.9% and AT & T had her up to 36.9%. My mother had used AT & T for her phone service for over 50 years and this was how they thanked her. I think the card was called WorldNet and has since been discontinued but I mentioned it to point out that even the well-known companies are not beyond scamming the elderly.
I highly recommend that seniors who are unable or unwilling to deal with their finances and rely instead on their relatives should instead at least consider learning all they can about "daily money managers" and how this simple service can serve nicely as a "gate-keeper" to those who are most likely and also most frequently "ripped off" by the predators listed in this article and in the comments attached to it. Make sure the "daily money manager" is bonded if you use one.
before I was 50 I supervised all my business affairs personally and was quite successful.Then due to some health matters I decided to take business partners in as helping hands and that was my worst blunder to which I repent to this day.They made me penniless and showed no remorse for what they did to me
Another one is senior dating sites. Men search for widowed women thinking they have money and property. They claim to be engineers and tell the women how much they love them and want to marry them. Then they are suddenly overseas on an alleged business trip and either can't exchange their currency or some bogus way of getting someone to wire money to them for their emergency via western union. It's a huge scam and from what I'm reading on some sites many women are falling prey and losing a major chunk of money.
If you or a loved one ever receive an IRS-generated CP2000 do not respond to the CP2000 until you sit down and examine the IRS claim for money for both its' authenticity and also for things like "facts not yet in evidence." For example, if a senior does not regularly file a tax return and then sells some stock, for example, that sale will generate attention of the IRS. I.E: Mom sells $50,000 in stock but doesn't file a return because she has a basis in that stock of $70,000 and since she has a loss sees no reason to file with IRS. Problem: IRS does not know the basis of the asset but does lay claim for taxes on the entire gross amount Mom received UNTIL they get a return proving no tax obligation. Recommend you find a local Enrolled Agent (EA).
One of the least-expected predators on seniors sadly is the IRS. IRS knows that "baby boomers" are the least likely to oppose even a bogus claim by IRS for additional tax, interest and penalty payments and will usually "pay-out-of-hand" out of fear of the IRS and out of fear of what will happen to their wealth and estate if they in any way "mess with the IRS." I deal constantly with a dreaded IRS Form called a CP2000 and have done so for 31 years...seniors are indeed prey to the IRS.
It was a heads-up. I am going to double-check on my aging Mom after reading this. Thanks!
Hello Steve, Thanks for stopping by and sharing your feedback! If your home health agency is listed in our Senior Living Directory (http://www.caring.com/local/home-health-agencies), consider inviting your clients to post reviews of the services you offer -- to help other families in their search and time of need. However, if it is not yet listed, you may get listed for free: http://providerinfo.caring.com/ProviderGetListed.html
As this article indicates, the maltreatment or abuse of elders is far more common than we would like to believe; consider that statistics are difficult to capture because many of the victims are unable or afraid to report the violence to police, family or friends. The CDC has identified six types of maltreatment that occur in people over the age of 60, these include: Physical Abuse; Sexual Abuse; Emotional Abuse; Neglect; Abandonment and Financial Abuse. As the owner of a private duty care company, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of hiring licensed aides that have access to ongoing education and training programs; we have seen the emotional toll of abuse and it’s a long road back to building trust. http://www.cdc.gov/features/elderabuse/ Steven East, CEO and President Caring People Home Healthcare Agency Servicing New York, New Jersey and Florida http://www.caringpeopleinc.com @caringpeopleinc