| Each year, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day brings international attention to elder abuse, including financial exploitation. The latter includes fraud by known perpetrators (crooked lawyers, the long-lost nephew, etc.) and via scams (what we often call stranger danger). U.S. financial institutions are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to the federal government when they suspect elder financial exploitation. Typically, analyses of these reports have shown the known perpetrator form of exploitation to be more common than scams. That is, until a few months ago. |
| Do scams outnumber known perpetrators?According to recent analysis by the federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), 80 percent of SARs reviewed over a one-year period involved scams, with 20 percent involving known perpetrators. It is uncertain whether stranger danger scams are that much more prevalent than known-perpetrator fraud today, or whether financial institutions are now better at identifying and reporting scams. Either way, it aligns with how people are feeling about scams these days. A recent AARP survey shows that 91 percent of U.S. adults worry about scams. Their top concern? Becoming a victim themselves.Ways to harden the target The growing recognition that fraud can (and does) happen to anyone, regardless of age or other characteristics, is actually a good thing. Recognizing our potential susceptibility reduces victim shaming and likely increases the desire to find ways to better protect ourselves. Here are steps we can all take to harden the target against scams. 1•Create strong and unique passwords for all online accounts, and enable multifactor authentication where offered (this is a code that adds a second layer of protection as you log in to your accounts). 2•Avoid clicking on links in emails and text messages. If you get an email or text from a company you do business with that suggests a problem with your account, don’t click a link to look into it. Rather, go to the website or app and log in to see if there’s a problem. 3•Only use public Wi-Fi if you have a virtual private network, or VPN, installed on your device. Otherwise, use your cell service if available. 4•Update your device’s operating system and antivirus protections when prompted — better yet, set them to automatically update. These are often used to patch known vulnerabilities. 5•Monitor your credit and consider a credit freeze. The latter helps protect against someone opening an account in your name. (Visit annualcreditreport.com to learn more about both.) |
| reprinted from AARP Fraud Protection Network |