Report actual or attempted elder fraud (or any type of fraud) via Fraud.org’s Online Complaint Form.
Change the phone number if a senior is receiving excessive sales calls.
Change the bank account or credit card numbers if they have fallen into the hands of thieves.
Avoid getting on sucker lists. Don’t fill out contest entry forms at fairs or malls—they are a common source of “leads” for con artists. Ask companies you do business with not to share your personal information with other marketers.
Know your “Do-Not-Call” rights. Under federal law, you can tell a telemarketer not to call you again and you can file a complaint on the Do Not Call website.
In our previous blog we talked about why senior citizens have become such a target for con artists and even unscrupulous relatives to commit elder fraud and take their hard-earned money. We also talked about signs that they may be being duped. Today, we want to make you aware of the variety of schemes that are out there. This is by no means a complete list, but will give you a pretty good idea of what to watch for.
Common schemes:
The “Grandparents Scam”: someone phones or e-mails and pretends to be a grandchild in trouble. The elderly person, who may not have much contact with their grandchild, might be convinced and may wire money or send a prepaid debit card to help.
Offers of “freebies”: the Better Business Bureau of eastern Michigan reports that scammers now are offering seniors $3,000 in “free groceries savings certificates” along with a free medical alert bracelet. The scam may lure people to give away bank account information.
Imagine spending your whole life working hard, saving wisely and spending conscientiously—only to have your comfy “nest egg” taken away by unscrupulous scammers or even your own greedy relatives in your golden years. Sad to say, this is a scenario that is far too common; up to 80% of scam victims are over 65, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. A 2009 study by MetLife’s Mature Market Institute estimates that seniors lose approximately $2.6 billion per year to elder fraud, or what they call financial abuse, meaning fraud by outside scammers or theft by family members and acquaintances.
And this issue will take on even more importance in the years to come as the senior population in America grows. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 37.3 million people 65 and older in the United States as of 2006. This group is expected to double in size within the next 25 years. By 2030, almost 1-out-of-5 Americans – some 72 million people- will be 65 years or older.
Ignoring fraud training as the foundation of your cyber security strategy is like counting on Google to educate your kids. Technology is a critical tool in the fight, but without well educated users, guided by knowledgeable teachers, the tools are a waste of your money.
Thanks to President Obama’s state-of-the-union plug for increased cyber security, the Chinese hacking of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and the hacking of a prominent celebrities, America is waking up to the tangible value of virtual data. Awareness is definitely the first step, but it is only the tip of the privacy iceberg. Just as in the age before the internet, the only thing keeping employees from selling secrets or participating in fraudulent activity are the human controls that discourage the practice. But it’s all the more hair-raising to think of the amount of digital secrets an employee has access to at any given time. The new tale of a Reuters journalist gone cyber-rogue adds a chilling wrinkle to the perils of protecting the data that keeps corporate profits ticking.
Do you know what’s behind the masks your employees may wear? A staggering number of businesses falter and even fail because someone on the inside – an employee, vendor or even a partner – steals money, goods, data or intellectual property from the organization. Will yours be one of them? Not if you learn about the warning signs of fraudsters and the weaknesses in your current hiring procedures.
The strongest indicator that your business is at risk? Denial. If you have ever said to yourself, “My people would never do that,” or “were too small to be worth a fraudster’s time”, you are caught in a cycle of self-delusional naiveté. Most inside theft happens at the hands of a “trusted” team member. In fact, insider theft and fraud aren’t generally committed by experienced criminals.
In the first part of this article series, we discussed why it is so important to protect your business data, including the first two steps in the protection process. Once you have resolved the underlying human issues behind data theft, the remaining five steps will help you begin protecting the technological weaknesses common to many businesses.
Businesses often make social engineering (or fraud) training boring! And that’s bad for your bottom line, because no one ends up remembering how to protect your organization against threats like data theft, corporate espionage or social networking exposure.
Too often, fraud and social engineering workshops cover just the concepts that define fraud rather than the feelings that signal it’s actually in process at the moment. The key to training your executives, employees and even customers on fraud is to let them experience what it feels like to be conned. In other words, they need to actually be socially engineered (manipulated into giving away their own private information) several times throughout the training so that they begin to reflexively sense fraud as it is happening. Like learning to throw a ball, there is no substitute for doing it for yourself. Fraud detection is similar; it takes actually doing it (or having it done to you) to fully understand the warning signs. Anything less will leave your audience yawning and uneducated.
Here comes Spring Break! And the scams that go along with travel and vacations, whether you are a student or just taking some time off.
Picture this: you find a great deal online for a vacation package and are counting the days till you take off for some fun in the sun. The day finally arrives and you show up at the airport, bags packed and ready to take flight. But when you reach the ticket counter, you learn that you have no flights booked… you’ve been scammed!
It happens ALL THE TIME, and scammers are getting more and more convincing. Scams rise during any busy travel season, but there are ways to avoid becoming a victim. Here are some tips on how to prevent travel scams and make sure that you get to enjoy a great Spring break trip.
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The past two blogs have outlined why seniors are targeted, what signs to watch for, and some common schemes. Now for the truly important info: How to prevent elder fraud from happening and what to do if it does happen!
In our previous blog we talked about 
