Elder Financial Abuse, part 3. Stuff That Happens

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Read the first and second articles in this series.

On this last part of the series I will explain the most common scams that target seniors, as well as of some of the newer types of financial abuse detected. The first two happen namely in the United States, so if you live elsewhere you need not worry about them.

Healthcare scams

In these scams the victim usually gets a phone call from someone claiming to be from Medicare who states there are new optional services for which they qualify, for a cost, while looking for a way to obtain the person's personal and financial information. Medicare has your personal information on file, and in this day and age nobody, no matter what age, should give out their personal or financial information to anyone on a phone call they did not initiate.

What I mean is, if you have a doubt that the caller might be an actual honest Medicare employee, get his or her name, and ask for a phone number to call them back; if they cannot give out their number, ask for the central number where you would be able to ask for them. Don't call. Instead, go online or call information and get the 100% authentic number for the office that the person claimed to call from, and call there. If they are for real, you will find them. Or run a reverse phone search, which is a service on which you can enter a number and it tells you to whom it belongs.

Prescription scams

There are online prescription storefronts that sell counterfeit medication, or simply don't deliver after you've paid. Please check well on the references of any new site you may want to use before ordering anything.

To make matters worse, sometimes the companies that run prescription scams by not delivering the goods, make extra money by using your personal information to obtain prescriptions in your name, often of controlled substances, to sell illegally.

Anti-aging products

There are many, many unscrupulous people out there selling miracle beauty and/or anti-aging regimes, and ooh so many homeopathic remedies, somehow "all proven and certified to make you look (and FEEL!) X years younger.

What can I say? You know it, I know it. We both wish it were true, but we know that if something sounds too good to be true and only "a few select people have yet dared try this"… we know it's a big fat hairy lie. If the secret of youth had really been found, it'd be on CNN.

Obituary scams

There are common scams and then there are nasty scams. Obituary scams are downright nasty because they prey on the pain of people who have recently lost a family or closed person. Scammers will use local newspaper obituaries to find ways to make money by:

Claiming to be from a collections agency to which the deceased owed money;

Coming to the door with fake pay on delivery packages in the name of the deceased, so that the person will pay for what turns out to be junk.'

Please be conscious of these possibilities, even in a time of grief.

Relative scams

Just as bad as the obituary frauds. A young-sounding person calls and says "hey grandpa/ma, guess who!". The victim tries to guess by giving a name of a relative they haven't seen in a while, and that's how it starts. after a few phone calls the fake grandkid asks for money. And be aware that sometimes they have information about the victim because they can collect it from social media like Facebook, or social group sites.

They never ask for a lot of money but they can keep doing it. A good way to not get caught in this scam is to call around, to another close relative of the caller, and make sure it was he or she who called you. They can ask around and find out for you.

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