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Elder Fraud Advisory

 

Seniors are often targeted for elder fraud because they tend to be very trusting and polite. Seniors usually have significant financial savings, own a home, and have good credit—all of which make them attractive for scams. The FBI provides this brochure to help:

 

To download the brochure please click here older-adult-financial-exploitation-brochure-2019

The FBI states:

“If you believe you or someone you know may have been a victim of elder fraud, contact your local FBI field office or submit a tip online. You can also file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

When reporting a scam—regardless of dollar amount—include as many of the following details as possible:

  • Names of the scammer and/or company
  • Dates of contact
  • Methods of communication
  • Phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, and websites used by the perpetrator
    Methods of payment
  • Where you sent funds, including wire transfers and prepaid cards (provide financial institution names, account names, and account numbers)
  • Descriptions of your interactions with the scammer and the instructions you were given”

 

Tips to Help Financial Institutions Detect Elder Fraud 

Banks and credit unions are uniquely positioned to detect that an older account holder has been targeted or victimized and take action.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) has published an Advisory for financial institutions on preventing and responding to elder financial exploitation  The CFPB provided six categories of voluntary best practices to help financial institutions prevent elder financial abuse and intervene effectively when it occurs.

These categories include:

1. Developing and implementing internal protocols and procedures for protecting account
holders from elder financial exploitation;
2. Training management and staff to prevent, detect, and respond to suspicious events
3. Detecting elder financial exploitation by harnessing technology;
4. Reporting all cases of suspected exploitation to relevant federal, state and local
authorities;
5. Protecting older account holders by complying with the Electronic Fund Transfer Act
(EFTA) and Regulation E and by offering age-friendly services that can enhance
protections against financial exploitation;
6. Collaborating with other stakeholders such as law enforcement, adult protective
services, and service organizations.

 

References and Sources

SCAMS AND SAFETY

Website https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/elder-fraud/https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/information/seniors/elder-fraud

Website https://www.ojp.gov/spotlight/elder-abuse/fraudhttps://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/elder-abuse-financial-scams-against-29822.html

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We are a non-profit organization with the purpose of helping consumers that have been harmed by unethical or illegal actions by Utah companies, licensed professionals and others.

While we are a non-governmental agency, unincorporated nonprofit association now, that was incorporated in October of 2019. In September of 2020 our founder resigned from all her positions, for serious health issues and Kathy Nicholson took over CFPAU.org, with Ernest Crawford remaining as managing Director.

In January of 2022 the CFPAU.org Directors made the wise decision as a nonprofit, that it was best to unincorporate by allowing the registration expire and for it to become an unincorporated nonprofit association.

Since CFPAU.org does not accept any donations and all work is done by volunteers we accept no financial funding nor provide any funding. Any funds negotiated for refunds or settlements go directly to victims. This is important because we must remain above any influence and remain objective and unbiased in our consumer research and reports. That is why we refuse any payment for our services.

There are no CFPAU financial accounts. We are a unincorporated nonprofit association operated by volunteers, we advocate for consumer victims with state and industry agencies and often meet with state leaders to create better legislation to protect consumers.

We also provide consumer review reports, and opinions about victim experiences  with professionals and companies and organizations that our in depth research has indicated is harmful to consumers. To learn more about our organization, please visit our policy page at https://cfpau.org/policy

 

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