A bureau of the Department of the Treasury has released
The analysis from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or Fincen, follows up on
Elder financial exploitation encompasses both elder scams, which is the transfer of money to a stranger or imposter for a promised, undelivered benefit; and elder theft, which is theft by an otherwise trusted person. According to Fincen's analysis, roughly 80% of exploitation reports involved scams, and the remaining 20% were theft cases.
Andrea Gacki, the director of Fincen, thanked financial institutions for their help documenting the crimes as part of their compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, and said that the institutions play a "critical role" in helping to identify and prevent suspected elder financial exploitation.
"We are grateful for their vigilance and for the BSA information they have filed — and continue to file — in response to Fincen's 2022 advisory," Gacki said.
Each year, 10% of people aged 65 or older experience some form of elder abuse — physical, psychological, financial, sexual or neglect and abandonment —
The Department of Justice provides a list of warning signs that indicate an elder may be suffering financial exploitation. Leading this list are sudden changes in bank accounts or banking practices, including an unexplained withdrawal of large sums of money by a person accompanying the elder.
Other warning signs include abrupt changes in a will or other financial documents, unexplained sudden transfer of assets to a family member or someone outside the family and, critically, reports by elders of financial exploitation.
According to Fincen's Friday report, the most frequent type of elder financial exploitation was account takeover, which as the name suggests refers to an unauthorized party gaining control over someone's account.
Often perpetrators rely on unsophisticated means to steal funds, minimizing direct contact with financial institution employees. These methods include using previously compromised identity information (including passwords), guessing passwords or mass spam emails that elicit replies containing sensitive information.
Banks use anti-money-laundering and fraud systems to try to catch scams that prey on senior citizens. A few, including Wells Fargo, are working on artificial intelligence that could spot them even earlier.
Some research has found that age indeed correlates with susceptibility to scams, even in the absence of
In the study, susceptibility to scams also correlated closely with lower income, lower cognition, less psychological well-being, less social support and less financial literacy.
The American Bankers Association