Report on Financial Abuse of Older Americans

The Metlife Mature Market Institute has published a report called “The MetLife Study of Elder Financial Abuse: Crimes of Occasion, Desperation, and Predation Against America’s Elders.” This study found that financial abuse of older Americans has increased 12% since 2008. The key findings of this study include:

• 51% of the reported fraud perpetrators were strangers
• 34% of the reported fraud perpetrators were family, friends, and neighbors of the victim
• 12% were businesses which exploited the elderly
• women were nearly twice as likely as men to be victims of elder financial abuse
• most victims were between the ages of 80- 89
• an estimated $2.9 billion dollars were lost by victims of financial abuse in 2010

The full study can be accessed here.

How can you avoid financial abuse and scams?  
The National Council on Aging has published an online handbook outlining how to avoid scams. This handbook is called "Savvy Saving Seniors: Steps to Avoiding Scams."  It lists the top ten scams targeting Seniors (on p. 10) and gives tips for avoiding scams (on p. 14).