By Officer Larry Jacobs
Senior citizens continue to be a target for scammers. As a result, several organizations such as the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission provide tips on ways to help prevent this kind of fraud.
A survey (released in June 2010) by Investor Protection Trust found that about 20 percent of Americans aged 65 and older have been taken advantage of financially. The most common forms of this type of fraud affecting seniors are by inappropriate investments, unreasonably high fees for financial services or just outright fraud.
Four common scams facing seniors are deceptive sales, lottery scams, “grandparents” scams and Medicare scams. Here are ways the Better Business Bureau says you can recognize those scams and avoid them
Deceptive sales: Solicitors go door-to-door on behalf of their “businesses” and will try to pressure the victim into buying something. They lie and use a sense of urgency about the extent of the problem. They will inflate prices and will ultimately provide no service, bad service or will start, but never finish the project. Watch out for offers that seem too good to be true coupled with high-pressure sales tactics.
Sweepstakes or lottery scams: This occurs when the victim gets a call or receives a letter stating that they have one a sweepstakes or lottery. The caller or letter will ask the recipient to cash a check they will or have received and then to wire a portion of the money back to the “company”. The catch is the check that the victim receives is a fake and the bank will not catch it until after the victim has already sent the money.
Grandparents scam: The scam is when someone calls the victim claiming to be a relative in jail or in a foreign country needing money. Check with other family members before falling for such a call.
Medicare scam: Callers claim to represent the government over a Medicare claim and will ask for all sorts of private and personal information, which then cn be used to cheat the victim. Be sure callers are who they say they are.
Officer Larry Jacobs is a crime prevention specialist with Crime Prevention Unit of the Sandy Springs Police Department. He can be reached at ljacobs@sandyspringsga.gov.