Seniors, Scams and the Relationship to Dementia
Sadly, seniors are vulnerable to scams, especially financial fraud. According to the FBI, scammers target older people and successfully steal over 3 billion dollars a year using charm, fear, manipulation, and even disguising themselves as another person. Using social media, scammers are able to find personal information, such as a grandchild’s name, and will approach the grandparent with urgency to send money immediately as the grandchild is in trouble. The “Grandparent Scam” even has a new twist. With the use of artificial intelligence, the scammers can clone the grandchild’s voice.
A scammer will also present themselves as someone of authority, such as a local deputy IRS agent, or even a Medicare representative. Through sweepstakes, investment opportunities, and romantic scams, the scammer will often target seniors living alone, befriend them, and take advantage of their isolation and loneliness. These thieves are masters at gaining the person’s trust and persuading the person to send money or gift cards to a non-existing charity or to help someone in need. They target the persons emotions and behaviors.
It is always puzzling how adults could be pressured so easily to fall for these traps. But scientists know “long before the memory problems of Alzheimer’s become obvious, people experience more subtle changes in their thinking and judgment” says Neuropsychologist Patricia Boyle of Rush University’s Alzheimer’s disease center.
“When a con artist approaches an older person, they’re looking for a social vulnerability — someone who is open to having a conversation with a complete stranger,” said Boyle.
A person exhibiting early signs of dementia may change purchasing patterns such as buying unusual or large amounts of an item. Giving money to telemarketers, unfamiliar charities, or large, unexplained withdrawals from the person’s bank account, could all be signs that the person’s cognitive abilities are affected and they are unable to discern the scammers intentions.
“As older people start making mistakes in financial, health care, and other types of complex decisions, we do need to raise awareness and start asking, ‘Do they need some help?’” Boyle said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean someone is going to go on to develop dementia. But we should become more aware.”
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