By Daniel Stefanksi |
A recent report shows that elderly Americans are collectively losing billions of dollars through nefarious means.
Earlier this year, AARP released a report, showing that Americans over the age of 60 years old lose $28.3 billion each year to ‘elder financial exploitation’ (EFE).
According to the non-profit, EFE is “the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds, property, or assets.”
“While strangers often rely on quick and irreversible transactions such as gift cards or wire transfers, perpetrators who know the victim are more likely to gain direct access to their victims’ bank accounts. But financial exploitation of any kind wreaks havoc on the lives of older adults and their families,” said Jilenne Gunther, National Director of AARP’s BankSafe Initiative and lead author of the report. “The keys to stopping this growing problem are consumer education, frontline employee training and strengthened technology to flag suspicious activity.”
AARP labeled its methodology for producing the total annual losses as “a first-of-its-kind,” due to the fact that the majority of these dollars go unreported. In fact, the report estimated that out of the $28.3 billion comprising the annual EFE deficit, $20.5 billion is unreported. Almost three-quarters of the $28.3 billion ($20.3 billion) stems from people the victim(s) know, while the remaining $8 billion is pilfered from strangers.
In its conclusion, AARP asserts that the reason for this vast divide between the fraud from strangers or family / friends is because “the nature of stranger-perpetrated fraud bears little resemblance to fraud initiated by people the victim knows. To start, while strangers may rely on quick and irreversible transactions such as gift cards or wire transfers, perpetrators familiar to the victim are more likely to make incremental inroads, gaining direct access to funds, for example, by attaining joint ownership or power of attorney status on their victims’ accounts.”
The report gave two possible solutions to help minimize future EFE. The first is to “provide funding to states to mandate and standardize data collection procedures of Adult Protective Services, which would enhance the picture of EFE.” The second is to “tailor evidence-based intervention strategies based on perpetrator type.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
