Written by: Mark and Carol
Fairall
Mark Fairall – Copyright
This World Elder Abuse Awareness Week - June 15th through June 21st
World Elder
Abuse Awareness Week is June 15th – 21st and this is its 11th year in
existence. The United Nations established this awareness day to promote the
better understanding of the abuse and defrauding of the elderly. It is
estimated that 10% of elderly Americans (nearly six million) are victims of
elder abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation every year. Sadly, less than
four percent of these crimes are ever reported.
Senior financial
losses are estimated by TrueLink Financial in 2015 to be $36.48 billion every
year. It is estimated that seven percent of the elderly experience money losses
due to scams with average financial loss of $52,300. An elder abuse victim is three times more
likely to die than non-abused seniors. One senior is abused every five seconds
in America.
Please help and
better protect the Rights and Safety of the Elderly. They have earned the right
to live in dignity without any fears.
We are exposing
the top 10 biggest and newest scams of the elderly, which are:
10. GOLD BUYING AND SELLING SCAMS: The Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) is reporting significant
losses to the discount gold
broker. Seniors are influenced by gold advertising as a safe haven to the
declining dollar and rising inflation. Often the seniors wire the funds to the
precious metals sellers and never receive their gold or silver. Their FTC
reported losses range from $1,000 to $300,000.
Never buy gold
or silver from TV or newspaper advertisers. Only buy precious metals from
people you know and/or from coin stores that have a physical location. Always
use a credit card to buy precious metals not cash.
The “Cash for
Gold” is usually a ripoff that uses mail in services and/or free standing
vendors. They pay about 10% of the real value of the gold and silver. Get
several bids on your gold and silver at reputable coin shops and jewelry stores
before selling your precious metals. Remember buying precious metals is very
speculative so be cautious because its value can go down too.
9. DOOR-TO-DOOR CONTRACTORS: One of
the largest areas of criminal activities against the elderly
are door-to-door contractor scams. They target elderly
homeowners in middle income neighborhoods.
The sell: home repair work,
driveway coatings, gutter cleaning, chimney cleaning, and yard services. Often
they use cheap materials if they show up at all after you paid them. They use
forceful scare tactics, fake references, and special deals. Never be intimidated, check out their contractor's license, and
get a written contract of what they promise. Never pay cash for the entire job
upfront. They often use threats of legal actions and lawsuits to collect more
than you agreed too.
Never use door-to-door contractors but use only contractors
that are referred from reputable source.
8. ONLINE DATING SCAMS: The most
devastating elder scams is Online Dating because it steals your money and
heart. Online dating is a $2 billion industry. The feds reported that in 2014
romance scams stole $86.7 million from 5,900 victims who reported their losses
to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Nearly 75% of the complaints were
filed by people 40-years old and older. Woman had 82% of the online dating
losses.
NBC News reports
that the primary goals of the online dating scammers are: to steal your money,
to steal your personal information, and to possibly blackmail you. Dating sites
can cost from $30 a month to $2,000 a month depending on the level of the
wealth one is looking for in romance. It is costlier to try to find a
millionaire on that online dating site.
AARP reports
that seniors are the primary targets of romance scammers. The reasons are
because they are more trusting and have more money. AARP states that it is
possible to find love online but one has to more savvy. Watch for red flags of
poor English, fake photos, and money requests. Sadly, many seniors do not
report this scam because they are too embarrassed. The online heart stealing
crooks keep on breaking wallets and hearts.
7. FREE MEALS INVESTMENT SEMINAR FRAUDS: The Financial
Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has
issued an alert that there is no such
thing as a "free meal" financial seminar. Their study of 100 free
meal seminars found 50% had sales information that was exaggerated, misleading,
and unwarranted. They also reported that 13% were outright frauds. These free
meal seminars are DANGEROUS.
These free meal
seminars target the elderly because they are not savvy investors who are
impulsive and far too trusting. The seniors often hope for quick big profits
and often invest too much for too long with the hopes of making a bigger
financial killing.
It is important
to verify who is paying for the free meal and their intent. It is important to
do a FINRA Broker Check at (800) 280-9999 to verify if the presenter is
licensed and legitimate.
6. IDENTITY THEFT AND INTERNET FRAUDS: The 2015 FTC
report documented that reported Identity Theft increased nearly 50% (410,128
FTC complaints). The age group that had the most problems with this fraud at
44% were people between the ages of 40 to 60 years old (mid-life workers).
Most people
(10.8%) did not know how the criminal got their identity theft information. The
two other big areas of Identity theft information were from data breaches (3%)
and internet/email (1.2%). Less than half of identity theft problems (180,753)
were reported to the police. The police failed to take an identity theft report
on 11% of the crimes.
It is estimated
that 15 million Americans lose over $50 billion a year due to Identity Theft.
It is reported that 19 people become an Identity Theft Victim every minute.
5. JUNK DEBT COLLECTION FRAUD: Debt Collection
is big business. Debt collection can be for credit card debt, lending
institution loan debt, personal debt, and rent debt. Collection companies buy
junk debt for pennies
on the dollar and hammer the borrower.
The recent 2015
FTC report found Arizona had 42,575 FTC fraud complaints in 2015. The number
one problem reported to the FTC in Arizona for 2015 was fraud complaints was
about Debt Collection with 10,211 complaints. Seniors 60-years old and older
filed the most complaints at 37% of any other age group.
The junk debt
industry is overwhelming the courts with lawsuits. The courts are being flooded
by lawsuits that are not substantiated, have false information, and take
advantage of the unrepresented poor. The elderly are losing their home to
foreclosures at a record pace because they are not aware of the power of a junk
debt collector lawsuit. Also, 90% of the elderly homeowners do not have a
lawyer or even appear in court at the trial. So the junk debt lawsuit is won
and the house is repossessed by Default Judgement.
4. CONTRACT FRAUDS: These are written agreements
which are binding and are dangerous to elderly. Too often the elderly are too
trusting and are unaware of the possible legal risks. Once a contract is signed
it cannot
be changed unless all parties agree. Never be pressured to sign a
contract and have it reviewed by an attorney. Too many seniors are being duped
by crooked contracts that are written by the attorney of service or product
provider.
Senior living
contracts are very tricky and avoid anything that requires an arbitration.
Arbitration waves your right to sue and any disputes has to resolved by a panel
of people reviewing the case. It is important to have the clause that you can
break your lease if you require more medical care than the senior living
facility can provide. Many senior living facilities have a yearly contract
which locks the price but it has the month-to-month option that allows the
senior to move.
Never sign a
contract with blank spaces, dating errors, cross outs, or without reading it.
Cosigning loans is very dangerous because 38% of the cosigners end up having to
pay the loan. Never sign for a free trial on a one-year contract because often
it is impossible to cancel the contract and payments. Always get a second
opinion and ask questions before signing contracts. Get all verbal promises
written into the contract.
3. GUARDIANS AND CONSERVATORS FRAUD: Legally
appointed guardians take control of the senior's life
, finances, and
well-being. This is a legal cesspool of highly paid guardians and/or
conservators that have the broad legal authority which is often misused to
defraud the handicapped and/or disabled vulnerable adult. There is an estimated
1.5 million Guardians overseeing approximately $273 billion in assets. A recent
survey of a federal agency reports that 855 judges report 64% have taken action
against the misconduct of guardians. The problem will get worse as the baby
boomers age.
Guardians are
granted authority over their ward's medical care, living conditions, and
finances. Too often the Guardian takes advantage of the senior while the legal
system ignores the scam. There are over 10 million seniors that have their
lives dictated by a court appointed Guardians. The Guardianship Industry is
growing over 20% a year because it is very profitable and it very easy to
misuse.
It is estimated
that Guardianship losses for 2015 exceeded $36.5 billion.
2. COUNTERFEIT DRUGS AND MEDICAL MISTAKES: The phony drug
suppliers target older Americans because 71% of hospital prescriptions are
written to them. These medically worthless and toxic drugs are a $200 billion
scam that represents 10% of all drugs sold. These cheap fake drugs are sold for
less money and often on the internet.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) along with INTERPOL just completed this month Operation Pangaea IX. The
feds shut down 4,402 websites selling illegal and dangerous drugs from 115
countries. AARP estimates that there are 36,000 "rogue" Internet
pharmacies selling counterfeit drugs which contain heavy metals, rat poison,
and even toxic highway paint.Besides the fake
drugs the feds reported that the online internet sites posed other risks of
credit card fraud, identity theft, and computer viruses. It is recommended to
avoid "Canadian Drug Sales Companies”, small pharmacies often located in
strip malls, and when the price is too low.
A new study by
Johns Hopkins medical school has reported that the third-leading cause of
deaths (250,000) in the USA is caused by medical errors. Many of the medicals
errors happen in hospitals but Death Certificates do not have a place on it to
report the medical error death. The World Health Organization stated the
present system cannot track medical error deaths. Death Certificates need to
have an extra field to report that decease died because of the care they
received. The medical error death rate is getting worse from 98,000 reported in
1999 to 180,000 reported in 2010 to 250,000 reported in 2016. That is a
shocking increase of nearly 10% a year of people that die due to medical
errors.
It is reported
by the Journal of American Medical Association that it is estimated that 14% of
medical procedures are not needed.
1. MEDICARE FRAUDS: The number one
area of scams of the elderly is Medicare Fraud. It is estimated that nearly
$125 billion is lost every year due to Medicare Fraud and Over-payments.
Medicare covers
the health care coverage of 69 million people at the cost of $529 billion a
year. It is estimated that nearly 24% is fraud. The largest area of fraud is
people who are not qualified receiving Medicare coverage. The next area is
charging Medicare for service not provided. Lastly, Medicare fraud is providing
payments to unqualified healthcare providers.
Medicare is a
"high-risk" federal program because of the lack of proper oversight.
