Book Report #33 – Money Smart for Older Adults.
Begin: 4/10/2024
Finish: 6/10/2024
Title: Money Smart for Older Adults.
Author: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Why I choose to read this book?
To learn more about financial exploitation. Financial exploitation is the crime of the 21st Century and the target are mainly older adults because of the cognitive impairments, physical abilities, lots of resources and easy prey. To learn and better able to:
- Recognize and reduce, the risk of financial exploitation,
- Guard against identity theft,
- Plan for possible loss of your ability to manage you finances,
- Prepare financially for disasters,
- Find other helpful resources for managing your money, and
- Reporting Financial exploitation.
What I learned from this book?
Elder financial exploitations the theft of money, property or belongings. Older adults are more vulnerable to financial exploitation:
- Have regular income and accumulated assets,
- Trusting and polite,
- Lonely and socially isolated,
- Vulnerable due to grief or loss of family,
- Reluctant to report exploitation,
- Dependent on support from family member or caregiver,
- Receiving care from a person with substance abuse, gambling or financial problems or mental health issues,
- Fear of retaliation by the exploiter,
- Unfamiliar with managing financial matters,
- Cognitively impaired with diminished ability to make financial decision or detect a fraud or scam.
Types of Financial Exploitation:
- Exploitation by a fiduciary – a person who is named to manage your money or property,
- Power of Attorney – Gives someone else legal authority to make decision about money or property,
- Exploitation by caregiver and in-home helpers. Elder financial exploitation is often perpetuated by family members or other caregivers,
- Romance Scam, is where a new love interest says they love you, but they just want your money. Romance scams can happen online or in person.
- Online Romance Scam – online romance Scammers can connect with people through social media, dating apps, websites, text messages, or email.
- In person Romance Scam – happens in person. Romance scammers may take time to build trust with you. They may ask for a small monetary loan at first, and increase the amount based on willingness to lend money.
Investment Fraud:
Senior designation to signal that they have expertise in retirement planning or the investment needs of older people.
Common investment scams:
- Ponzi scheme.
- Unscrupulous financial advisors – bilk older adults with unexplained fees, unauthorized trade or irregularity.
- Affinity Fraud – Pretend to be member of a religious organization, military or ethic group to win trust.
- Internet Fraud – Scammers often design email and social media accounts to appear legitimate business or even family members.
- Inappropriate or fraudulent annuity sales – fail to disclose steep sales sales commission and surrender charges that impose costly fees or penalties for taking money out before the maturity date.
Avoiding telephone and internet scams:
- Grandparent Scam – impostor calls a grandparent pretending to be a grandchild in trouble and demanding money.
- IRS telephone Scam – They may spoof the IRS-toll free number on caller ID to make it appear that it’s the IRS calling. IRS will always send taxpayers a written notification of any tax due via the US mail.
- Lottery and Sweepstakes Scam – You usually cannot win a sweepstake or lottery that you did not enter. Never ” pay to Play”. A legitimate sweepstake will not ask for money upfront.
- Phantom Debt collection scam: Scam debt collectors try to trick their victims into paying a debt that doesn’t exist.
Avoiding Charity and other Scams:
Computer / Internet Scams:
– Phising and Spoofing scams can dupe elder into giving out their personal financial information. Phishing scammers create authentic looking email, text message, and /or internet pages to entice their victims into disclosing financial information such as credit card details, band or credit card account number, social security numbers, Medicare numbers, etc,
Identity Theft:
– Identity thefts occurs when thieves steal your personal information (eg. your social security number (SSN), birthdate, credit card numbers, personal identification number (PIN), or passwords. With sufficient information, another person can use your identity to commit fraud or other crimes.
Medical Identity Theft:
1.5 million adults are victims of medical identity theft. When someone steals personal information and use the information to get medical treatment, prescription drugs, surgery and then bill Medicare for it.
Scams that target homeowners:
- Reverse Mortgage Proceeds FraudMortgage Assistance Rescue Scam
- Contractor fraud and home improvement scams
Scams that target Veterans:
- Pension benefits Filing Scams
- Pension Advance Scam.
How will this book contribute to my success upon release?
Scammers target seniors are prevalent. Knowledge gained will help me and others from scams. This information will be shared with the Geriatric communities that I volunteer my services.
