THE ELDERLY SHOULD NOT LIVE IN FEAR OF ROBBERY, ABUSE, AND FINANCIAL RUIN
The elderly should not live in fear of robbery, physical abuse, and financial ruin. Financial fraud against the elderly is a widespread and underreported issue. Financial crime against senior has increased 35% since 2014 and continues to rise, compounded by the fact that only 1 in 44 of these crimes are reported. Many of these crimes exploit rising access sensitive personal information, which the elderly are particularly vulnerable to. In 2019, losses were estimated to be $4.9 billion.
Elder abuse is also rising. Reports of family members and ‘care givers’ physically abusing seniors are rising as more people become elderly..
It is vital that we begin putting in place aggressive measures to educate elderly people about the dangers of fraudulent financial crimes and scams as well as begin to measure the scale of the problem and aggressively target its perpetrators.