RICHMOND, Va. — Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are stolen from senior citizens in so-called “elderly scams”.
The FBI is now asking children and grandchildren to reach out to their parents and grandparents to make sure they don’t fall prey to the evil lurking on the phone and the internet.
“To lose it all because of greed and evil, it’s heartbreaking,” David Johnson, a special agent with the FBI, said.
Johnson has 20 years under his belt with the FBI. It’s a job that keeps him and his department busy.
“The elderly, senior citizens, tend to be very trusting, maybe a little less savvy when it comes to online issues. Anybody could be scammed, certainly, the older population is more vulnerable but anyone who is in a vulnerable position can be scammed.”
Johnson said there is a reason that those who are elderly tend to be targeted.
“They have, many of them, a nest egg. They have savings,” Johnson explained.
“Romance Scams” alone cost senior citizens more than $432 million just last year. Part of that money came from a local senior citizen.
“She ultimately gave almost a million dollars of her savings over the course of several months to scammers. And the heartbreaking part of this is these cases are really, really hard to solve,” Johnson said.
Unfortunately, senior citizens are put in a tricky position once they finally realize they have been scammed.
“They don’t want to tell anybody because they feel shame in many cases,” Johnson said.
Oftentimes, it’s the senior…
