CNBC recently published a list of the Top Ten Scams that are perpetrated against seniors in the US.
Scams cheat older Americans out of almost $3 billion a year. Here’s what to watch for
Seniors lose an estimated $2.9 billion annually from financial exploitation, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
Impersonating the IRS was the No. 1 scam targeting seniors in 2018.
More than 1,500 seniors across the country contacted the committee’s fraud hotline in 2018; however, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in recent testimony that only 1 in every 24 cases of elder exploitation gets reported.
“Despite that under-reporting, statistically one in every 10 Americans age 65 or older who lives at home will become a victim of abuse,” he wrote.
Here are the top 10 scams targeting seniors last year, according to the Senate aging committee’s 2019 Fraud Book:
For a description of each of the ten, go back to CNBC or the Fraud Book mentioned above.
1. IRS impersonators
2. Robocalls
3. Sweepstakes scam/Jamaican lottery scam
4. Computer tech support fraud
5. Elder financial abuse
6. Grandparent scams
7. Romance frauds
8. Fake Social Security calls
9. Lawsuit or arrest threats
10. Identity theft
Identity thieves not only drain bank accounts and charge credit cards, but they also defraud the government and taxpayers by using stolen personal information to submit fraudulent billings to Medicare and Medicaid.
The Senate aging committee recommends that victims place a fraud alert, report identity theft or file a police report if a scam is suspected.
Sit down with elderly relatives and explain the kinds of frauds that they might experience and then take time and report fraud or suspected fraud.
Almost a day doesn’t go by that I don’t get some call about “free” knee braces and such! How about you?
What a joke the Senate Aging Committee is–what a colossal waste of time they are! I DAILY receive at least 3 calls each on my home land line and my cell phone line covering Frauds #1-#9. That is 6 a day and sometimes more! Many of the numbers look local, so I answer but immediately hang up and BLOCK the number. I will get the same call the next day with one digit changed on the number. Most of my friends are getting the same number of calls that I am subjected to.
“The Senate aging committee recommends that victims place a fraud alert, report identity theft or file a police report if a scam is suspected.” What a joke that suggestion is! They REALLY worked hard on that completely ridiculous suggestion! How do you report a scam or file a police report 6 times every day on numbers that change daily?!? On one particular day, I left for an hour and came home to an answering machine with 14 of these calls! I will never respond and have not been a victim, but it is affecting the quality of life for so many of us! I am 73.
I’m so sorry to hear that—-I thought my one or two a day was bad!
I got scammed by Roku tv! Still can’t figure out how they did it! I had to activate my Roku TV( made in China, purchased at Walmart) it gave a number to dial to activate the tv. A person came on the line and informed me I had to pay $40 with a credit card and after it was activated I would have the money credited back to my account! Well it was a scam and Roku told me there was no charge to activate their tv! The only way I found out was my daughter told me! So I called the credit card company and they got my money back! I also informed the attorney General. However we never hear the outcome of this.
On Sun, Feb 24, 2019 at 6:46 AM Frauds, Crooks and Criminals wrote:
> Ann Corcoran posted: “CNBC recently published a list of the Top Ten Scams > that are perpetrated against seniors in the US. Scams cheat older Americans > out of almost $3 billion a year. Here’s what to watch for Seniors lose an > estimated $2.9 billion annually from financial exploi” >
I suspect that many of the scammers coordinate with people who are working at call centers as legitimate tech support. Most likely the tech support workers gather info from people who seem like easy targets and afterwards pass info to scammers. Sadly, call center countries like India and Jamaica have lax laws against crimes which involve fraud or the police get bribed not to prosecute. The best solution would be to contact your local electronics companies and tell them to only contract call centers based in the USA. The scary part is that many deported criminals who once lived in the USA are now working in call centers overseas such as Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Mexico.