Bah humbug! While the holidays are meant to be a time for
giving, professional scam artists are modern day grinches, intent
on manipulating vulnerable people into giving up their hard-earned
savings and jeopardizing their financial security this holiday
season. Don’t let your holiday merriment be marred by falling
victim to a financial scam.
Predatory financial scams are often a well-planned, coordinated
effort by groups of criminals, and their methods are not always
easy to identify at first glance as a scam. Seniors are extremely
vulnerable to financial scams, and are commonly targeted as
potential victims, for a number of reasons.
As most seniors have reached retirement age, scammers know that
many older adults have an established credit history, and
significant wealth accumulated over the course of their lifetime,
which means that their victims have access to large amounts of
money that could be prime for the taking
The susceptibility of older adults to coordinated scams makes
seniors a desirable target for the perpetrators, as well. Studies have shown that, as they age, seniors
have less of an ability to detect a scam, owing to a decreased
sensitivity to deception cues, and reduced decision-making capacity
that occurs as a natural part of aging.
Victims are not limited to older adults suffering from cognitive
impairment, either. One study found that 1 in 18 “cognitively
intact” older adults fall victim to financial harm perpetrated
through…
