"Reports of frauds, scams, and other types of practices are not new, but the incidence of scams has increased significantly over the last few years," said Odette Williamson, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), during her opening remarks at the IOA's 2023 Sylvan M. Cohen Annual Retreat.
According to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fraud report data, adults 60 years and older reported $1.6 billion in losses due to fraud in 2022.
Older adults in certain racially, ethnically, or linguistically isolated groups are particularly at risk, explained Williamson. "One FTC fraud survey found that Latinos experience higher rates of fraud, government imposter scams, and multilevel marketing or pyramid schemes,” she said. “Another survey found 19.2% of black consumers and 17.3% of Hispanic consumers reported being victims, while the number was only 14.9% for non-Hispanic white consumers.”
She explained that these professional scammers follow headlines closely, tailoring their scams to fit current narratives and exploiting the vulnerabilities of certain groups based on factors such as isolation, language barriers, or limited resources to financial or legal assistance.
Many older adults who fall victim to these scams are unaware that it is even happening, and if they are, many are hesitant to report it due to reasons such as feeling embarrassed or afraid of being perceived as being incapable of managing their finances.
The impact of these scams can be devastating for older adults not only financially – as they have less time and resources to “rebuild their nest egg,” said Williamson – but also physically and emotionally. Physical health can be impacted if an older adult is struggling to live with less resources (i.e. financial burdens may lead to loss of cars, services, or even their homes), but the emotional toll is just as heavy. In some of the most unfortunate instances, older adults fall victim to scams by some of their most trusted companions – family members, caretakers, or trusted advisors. In these cases, victims are often left with a sense of fear and depression. They are reluctant to report abuse in this case because they do not want their family member or caregiver to get in trouble or they do not want to be left without care as retaliation.
In either scenario – whether exploitation is by a stranger/professional scammer or a family member/trusted companion – victims really have limited options in recovering losses. Money and assets are very difficult to recover or cannot be traced and reversed such as wire transfers or gift card scams, which makes up a large percentage of the scams targeting older adults. While there are some legal tools and protections to help these victims, such as federal laws protecting consumers against unauthorized use of a credit card, for example, there is still much work to be done. When asked about some of the current barriers for more protections, Williamson replied “congress.”
“There is a lot going on to push the laws to be more protective,” she said. “The NCLC and other civil rights organizations are working hard to put better protections in place and to add friction between the scammers and the consumers and to get federal laws to be more protective.”
To learn more about the NCLC and Odette Williamson’s work, click here.
To hear Odette Williamson’s full lecture (minutes 9:32 – 1:12), click here.
Odette Williamson is a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. Much of her work focuses on foreclosure prevention and housing sustainability and issues affecting older adults.