Elderly Ripe For Greedy Children and Scam Artists (USA)

Elderly ripe for greedy children, scam artists

By Marshall Loeb, MarketWatch
November 16, 2009

 When a New York City jury recently convicted Anthony Marshall, 85, the only child of millionaire-socialite-philanthropist Brooke Astor, of 14 counts of fraudulently squeezing huge sums out of his late mother's $180 million estate, many observers thought it was simply an isolated case among the super rich.

Abuse of wealthy elderly parents by their greedy adult children and other relatives is as common as sin — so common that legal eagles have coined a name for it: elder abuse. More than 500,000 reports of such abuse against elderly Americans are sent to legal authorities every year, and millions more cases are thought to go unreported. Indeed, Senate sources estimate that only 16 percent of all elder abuse cases are reported.

A comprehensive survey by the MetLife Mature Market Institute concludes that financial loss by victims of elder abuse is at least $2.6 billion a year. Figuring that there are still plenty more cases to be found, district attorneys have set up their own elder abuse offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Brooklyn, Seattle and many other places.

While elder abuse commonly involves a relative of the victim, there are plenty of other hucksters after older folks' dough. There is an endless variety of telemarketing fraud alone; offenders simply make cold calls to solicit money for all manner of fraudulent investments, insurance policies, travel packages, mortgage fraud and predatory lending.

As for the victims, older people control the largest single share of the nation's personal wealth, so they are obvious targets for predators.

Legal authorities say that the fraudsters themselves tend to betray certain characteristics. For example, they show an excessive interest in the targeted older person's assets, demonstrate excessive control of an older person, act hostile during appointments or on the phone and try to control telephone use.

To prevent becoming victimized yourself by elder abuse, you simply must practice basic caution. 


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Abridged
SOURCE:    The Pittsburgh LIve

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