Originally published June 12 2005
Older adults need help from neighbors, bankers and healthcare workers to prevent financial scams
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The second annual William J. Neff Sr. Symposium on the Prevention of Crimes Against Older People was recently held in San Diego. Law enforcement officers urged bankers, neighbors and healthcare workers to keep an eye on seniors and their finances to keep them from being scammed. Every year seniors are scammed out of $40 billion by fake lotteries, fake charities, telemarketing scams and fake investments.
Bankers, healthcare workers and neighbors must be the eyes and ears of senior citizens to protect them from being victims of financial crimes, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The victimization of senior citizens is a growing problem but one that largely goes unnoticed because seniors are reluctant to report problems and law enforcement is reluctant to prosecute, said Paul Greenwood, a deputy district attorney in San Diego, who prosecutes crimes against seniors.
Greenwood spoke Tuesday to about 250 law enforcement officers, social workers, healthcare providers, bankers and others during the second annual William J. Neff Sr.
Neff, 83, died in September 2000 from broken ribs and a punctured lung.
Earlier this month, a Southampton man was arrested after investigators found he was using his mother's pension checks to pay for a racehorse.
The crime was discovered after the Neshaminy Manor nursing home, where the mother was staying, called the county's Area Agency on Aging, said District Attorney Diane Gibbons.
"You don't want to take away their dignity and treat them like they are 2 [years old]," Gibbons said.
Seniors are popular victims of financial scams because they're far more trusting, often are lonely and are dependent on others for financial and medical care, Greenwood said.
The most common scams against seniors are the Canadian and other international lottery scams, in which seniors are told they've won the lottery but must forward funds to pay for taxes before the winnings can be released.
Other scams include bogus charities, fake investments, fake accidents and telemarketing, a scam that takes $40 billion a year from seniors.
Because the seniors won't report the problems, it's up to people around them - relatives, neighbors, bank tellers, pharmacists and others - to keep an eye on them.
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