A number of years ago, I took a seminar on wills and trusts. Along with some rather amusing anecdotes like the woman that put in her will that “her ashes should be mixed into 5 gallons of ceiling paint and her husband was to have their bedroom ceiling painted with it,” there were also some rather serious moments. Advice like, “never trust your children.” I’m sure some of you have found that offensive, but did you know that consumer protection statistics show that over 90% of reported elder abuse is committed by an older person’s family member? Most often, it’s their children followed by grandchildren, nieces, nephews and then others.
A recent article I wrote created a great deal of interest when I mentioned that a sign of dementia can be their being taken in by scammers. I thought it would be a great service to review some of the most popular senior scams.
1. Health care fraud. Most everyone over 65 has Medicare so it’s easy for scammers to pose as a Medicare representative to get personal information. They’ll go so far as to set up bogus mobile clinics to collect information and then bill Medicare for the service.
2. Counterfeit prescriptions. You’ll find these everywhere on the internet where seniors are looking for bargains. The danger here is that your loved ones are paying for something that isn’t going to do them any…
