Unfortunately, as we get on a bit in life, sometimes we become more trusting, frailer, or a little clueless of all this modern technology that changes on a daily basis, and must depend on the youths to guide us! This is all very well and good if they are there to help us, however, a lot of them will take advantage of this fact and abuse their elders as they know they can scam them out of a bob or two.
So, this is a little article that we have put together for our website users, on the recommendation of Comparitech, whom wrote the original article that can be viewed in full here. There are many reasons why our elderly population are targeted in these scams, apart from the already mentioned above. The importance of assets usually dwindles on a personal level, and attention to how to split the assets once gone becomes more important. Elders may be more isolated than they once were, and email communication and internet (not mediums that they have used all their lives) become the only form of communication that they have with the outside world. To add to the loneliness, a lot of our elder population have declined mental states that may affect the usual decision making process.
This leads us to the very sad part of this article, in almost a quarter of the elder fraud cases that have been reported, nearly a quarter are committed by close family members or carers that work in close proximity with the person that they are going to scam. Then there are the rest, largely internet based scams, a medium that is foreign to the elderly population, and they are giving it more trust than it deserves.
There are several different ways that these scams can take, we will list them here, but recommend that you read the full article:
Monetary Scams – preys on those that have dwindling or low incomes using reverse mortgage systems. They can also prey on those that have built up a nice nest egg, and offer fraudulent investment schemes as a way to get people to part with their money, and then it is never seen again.
Lottery Scams – letting the claimant know they have won a substantial prize – normally by email, and telling them it will be released once their details are provided. DO NOT reply with any personal details. These will then be used to scam money from you.
Health Scams – Offering health products, prescription drugs etc at a discounted rate. Studies have shown that over 96% of online pharmacies are not legitimate, so please ONLY purchase something from one of these sites if it is 100% legitimate. If they are willing to sell you drugs without a prescription, they are not a legitimate pharmacy.
Identity Theft – used to steal credit card details, open false accounts in the persons name, obtain loans, finance for purchases etc in the persons name. The elderly are a bigger target for this as they normally have more net worth, more assets and more savings than the younger generations.
This article has been written to help our readers avoid any type of internet or email scams, and at least to have your guard up when you receive a request for personal details. Always get a second opinion before divulging any of your information to an unknown source, either online or off.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk