Elder Scams

The following is an example of how the elderly are easily duped, even when they have a financially informed family member close at hand.

Helen lived in a retirement home close to her son, who was a financial planner. Her son took care of her financial affairs and visited her frequently. He also took care of many errands to get personal items that were not provided by the retirement home. Due to an assortment of ailments, Helen was taking a variety of prescription medications, which her son usually picked up for her. One day when picking up a prescription, the pharmacy told the son that they delivered to that retirement home. So the son authorized delivery of the prescriptions to the retirement home.

After about a year, it turned out that the bills from the pharmacy were much larger than normal. The son studied the past pharmacy bills and compared them to the more recent bills and found substantially larger charges for one of the more expensive pain medications. In addition, the quantity of pills being purchased was far greater than the prescription for one per day.

When he contacted the pharmacy, he found that a "nurse" from the retirement home had been picking up the medications on behalf of Helen. Further inquiry revealed that one of the people who worked for an in-home care service had been assigned to provide services to another resident of the retirement home and had made a point to become friendly with Helen. At first, she offered to pick up various supplies from the nearby drug store. Then she offered to pick up prescriptions for Helen. But she would call the pharmacy, represent herself as the nurse and order prescriptions that were not required. She would then pick them up at the pharmacy and keep them. Eventually, it was found that she was selling the drugs to others.

When all of these facts were discovered, the son changed pharmacies and informed the new pharmacy that no medications were to be delivered to anyone other than himself or other than by delivery to the Retirement home. This particular scam cost Helen about $600 before it was discovered and before changes were made to prevent further purchases of unauthorized medications.

We welcome stories of how other elderly persons have been victimized and how the problem was solved or could have been avoided.

ELDER FRAUD IS A GROWING "INDUSTRY":

Elder law attorney Deb Speyer of Philadelphia says elder fraud is a major industry in America. And Carole Moore at Bankrate.com describes 9 common scams on the elderly.

Links to Other Articles on Scams and Swindles Against the Elderly

Safeguarding Against Elderly Scams

Scams and Frauds Against Seniors

Fighting Fraud Against Older Consumers

The Elderly Scam Index

Voice of the Elderly Scam Information

Warning Signals for Scams Against the Elderly

An Example of a Financial Fraud

Elderly Become Target of Scams (AARP)

Scams Targeting the Elderly (Joan E. Lisante)

Viatical Fraud (D.A. Kohtz, JD)