Seniors and scam artists

MH By MH Staten Island Advance
on September 18, 2009 at 8:19 AM, updated September 18, 2009 at 8:20 AM

The news that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand unveiled a set of initiatives to protect senior citizens from scams designed to part them and their money might have gotten lost in the typical welter of more lurid and urgent news the other day. After all, it seemed to be another one of those stories that we hear almost every day about a well-meaning legislator proposing legislation to address a growing problem.

New York's junior U.S. senator wants to toughen the penalties for those who perpetrate financial fraud on senior citizens, for starters.

Fair enough. But let's not kid ourselves: Those who are heartless enough to rip off seniors are also fearless enough to try it regardless of the potential penalty, because they believe they're smart enough not to get caught.

Sadly, all too often, they're right.

Consider the case of a Port Richmond couple who received a phone call, purportedly from a police officer in Canada, telling them that unless they wired $5,800 for bail money, their grandson would have to spend several weeks in an Ontario jail on a drug charge. Another voice, purportedly their grandson, confirmed the situation.

The callers knew a lot about their grandson, including his middle name, and that he was single and had been in the military.

The couple wired money to Canada as instructed, believing their grandson needed help. But their suspicions got the better of them and they contacted the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The money was eventually returned, but the would-be con men are still at large, probably looking for new marks.

What the couple didn't know is that this scam is all too familiar to authorities: Seniors are contacted about a loved one in a foreign country, often through a "friend," who tells them their family member has been arrested and needs bail money.

The Port Richmond grandfather of the young man purportedly locked up in Ontario told the Advance, "You're not thinking straight. All you can think about is this poor kid is jammed up."
Sen. Gillibrand wants the Federal Trade Commission to set up a Web site that will alert people to all the latest schemes intended to defraud people. That, too, is a worthy idea. The more accurate information there is out there, the fewer people will fall for criminals' trickery. We just worry that so many seniors don't use the Internet.

But here's the part of Sen. Gillibrand's announcement that really got our attention:

She reported that an estimated 200,000 seniors in New York City alone have been the victims of fraud, losing $70 million in all. This is the Big Apple, remember, where everyone, including the average senior, has street smarts.

In fact, one in five seniors is victimized, according to the FTC. That means something like 11,800 Staten Island seniors have been hit, and lost a total of over $4 million in the process.

Sen. Gillibrand said, "Usually they find out about a scam only after they are taken advantage of. That's typical."

That's what almost happened to the concerned Port Richmond grandparents.

Sen. Gillibrand's push for more education on criminal tactics is right on point, but we have to do more than simply rely on seniors to get the information themselves. Clearly, too many are in the dark and vulnerable.

That's where those of us in younger generations come in. Keep your grandparents or your elderly aunt or next-door neighbor posted about all the latest scams that come to your attention and keep reminding them so they'll be ready if -- or more likely, when -- a scam artist approaches.

Defrauding seniors is doubly cruel. Not only does it rob them of money they sorely need, but it robs them of their pride by making them feel especially foolish because the infirmities of their age seems to have made them gullible. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well it takes a concerned community to protect seniors from such indignities.