Why Elders and Retirees are Often Victims of Scams
Easy money! Great rebates! Safe investments! Best deals! Income benefits! All these are usual
baits that every elder or retiree often fall into. Incidents of scams on elderly and retirees keep
on increasing these days and too often, the culprits are not punished or even captured. How does
this scam work and why are the elders and the retirees are the favorite targets of these frauds? A
step by step study and reason-laying here will uncover the main cause why these age bracket seems
to be the most targeted by thieves and simple ways to avoid them will be discussed here.
Retirees and elders are those that are in the age bracket between 70 yrs old and above. These are
the people that can no longer work but are helped by the government or insurance companies through
pensions and aides. Practically, retirees and elders have money in their pockets and that they are
willing to have it invested. This is the very first reason why they are the most eyed prey of
scammers. Often, retirees and elders do no longer have greater cash expenditures as they may no
longer have dependent children. So mainly, their pensions are only focused to themselves for food,
shelter, clothing, medication, and recreation.
Consider the age bracket of these people. In contrast with the present fads, they are the less
knowledgeable. They may not even know how to use the computer. They may not be able to comprehend
fast with banking system. In short they can easily be twisted by using extravagant sales talk and
a little of integration of some lies. This is another reason that elderly and retirees fall to
these traps of scammers.
In one instance, a married elderly has been robbed with $400,000 in Sarasota, FL by a fraudulent
investment company. According to this couple, the manager seems to be good to them and each
transaction is backed with receipts and transcript making every bit of contributions seems
legitimate. Only to their surprise when one day, the manager disappeared carrying all their money.
Fortunately, the manager has been captured however the amount that was stolen is still yet to be
found.
How then should our elderly and retirees avoid such a misfortune? Well, the government has never
been short in protecting the rights of its citizens according to public record. In this case, the
avoidance will be up to the people concerned. First, before going in to a business or making
investment, be sure to conduct employment and
background checks service to the key persons of the company. Investigate thoroughly about the
company and how long it has been in existence. Any discrepancies and unnecessary reports may lead
you to doubt a certain company. You cannot do this by yourself so be sure you contact a trusted
lawyer and hire a private investigator. There is no other way to be safe than to be sure of the
backgrounds of the people that you wish to do business with. Do not easily give in to flowery
discounts and freebies. That is long known to have been used as trick to allure investors. Keep
your credit cards intact and do not ever trust it over to somebody in store, hospital, etc.
Finally, always make sure you have contacts with the local police. If anything goes wrong, always
pay them a ring.
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