Financial scams targeting older adults have reached a high level of sophistication, posing significant risks to this vulnerable demographic.
A recent Scientific American article, co-authored by two experts from Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, reveals new insights into how artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly deceiving people with financial scams. According to the article, the well-organized attacks are hurting senior citizens because they are more prone to cognitive decline, social isolation or even life transitions.
Thomas Blomberg is the dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology. He is also the executive director for the FSU Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research. His research focuses on identifying ways to more effectively link research knowledge to public policy. One of his areas of interest is examining the relationship between educational achievement among incarcerated youthful offenders and successful community reintegration.
Blomberg believes there are two main reasons scammers opt to prey on older adults.
“They’re easy targets and often they are fairly affluent,” Blomberg said of what draws scammers to older adults. “I think that’s pretty consistent throughout our research. They’re often not as skeptical. They believe someone’s word is their bond.”
Julie Brancale is an assistant professor at the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her research focuses on understanding the causes, consequences and justice system responses to financial exploitation and victimization of older adults. Brancale also translates her research findings into practical recommendations for policy and practice.
Brancale believes some of the preventative strategies needed for older adults to stay ahead of scammers include building skepticism and getting educated.
“The big thing that we have found is skepticism is important,” Brancale said. “In order to build that skepticism, you need to be educated. What that means is constantly keeping up to date with these scams that are happening and the tactics that people are using. They’re so sophisticated and they’re getting more sophisticated every single day.”
A combination of old and new scam tactics has flooded the elderly in recent years – AI voice-generated phone calls, fraudulent calls demanding immediate payment, lottery and sweepstakes calls and more. For example, the “grandparent scam,” which originated in 2008, exploits a person’s emotions by impersonating a grandchild or another family member in distress.
However, the research by Blomberg and Brancale offers several ways to stay safe from scammers — ranging from social support groups of trustworthy friends, taking practical protections and actively reporting suspicious activity to law enforcement and advocacy groups.
Media interested in learning about the latest research into these sophisticated financial scams can reach out to Dean Blomberg at tblomberg@fsu.edu or Professor Brancale at Julie.Brancale@fsu.edu.
Thomas Blomberg, dean and Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology
How does the concept of financial wealth factor into older adults getting scammed?
What we found is that for a lot of older people, the idea of money is a little different. When they get to a certain age, it doesn’t have the same significance as when they were younger — struggling and worried about every bill or whether they can afford another car.
What kind of psychological tactics do some of these scammers use to gain the trust of seniors?
I have dealt with many heavy issues but have never found myself quite as emotionally distraught as I was in the Villages, seeing these older people who had been victimized and what it had done to their self-confidence. They’ll make decisions to please the other person. There is a cognition issue where they don’t have as much self-confidence. There’s a lack of skepticism often. And that’s the one thing we try to push in their education is building skepticism through education and awareness and building self-confidence.
Age is a thing in which self-confidence can decline and therefore your decision making can decline.
Julie Brancale, assistant professor
How can family members or caregivers help protect their loved ones from fraud?
With family members, there’s a couple of things that they can do to protect aging loved ones: the first is being in tune with the older adult. A lot of older adults are fearful of letting their family members know that they have been scammed, or they potentially could be scammed, because they’re afraid that their family might come in and take away their independent living situation. Having family members know that older adults truly value that independence and to not try to come in and take away their independence is really important. Having regular conversations and being in touch regularly with their family member to protect, and perhaps notice subtle changes in their cognition and their physical abilities, is also important. For example, ‘Are they talking on the computer more to somebody than they used to?’ I don’t think that there’s a really quick fix. I think this is like a long-term relationship and really building that trust between the parents and children or siblings across generations.
What are the most effective ways to prevent seniors from becoming scam victims?
It’s building education about what’s happening, what kind of scams are out there, what are the tactics that are being used, and then that helps to build that sense of skepticism and confidence in a person’s ability to say no or to delay making a decision. A lot of the scams that we’re seeing nowadays, they’re really putting the pressure on the older adult that you need to act right now. ‘You need to send this money right now. If not, something bad and terrible is going to happen.’ Or on the flip side, ‘if you don’t send this money right now, you’re not going to get the prize that you’re you’ve just won in the lottery.’
What the skepticism and education does is it allows the older adult to take a step back and make decisions a little bit slower. That’s always a good thing. And then identifying a trusted person that the older adult can go to; ‘Who is this that I can contact at any time? And they’re not going to make me feel silly, stupid, afraid for asking the question if this legitimate or is this not.’ Having somebody that that older adult can contact with a potential issue is key. It’s about making sure that an older adult has somebody who really is looking out for their best interest and can provide them additional education and help boost their skepticism and their sense of self-efficacy, or their concept of themselves and their belief in themselves.
A lot of older adults that we’ve interviewed over the years have told us that they fell victim because they didn’t want to reach out. They felt like they were going to be a burden on somebody else. So having somebody there can really be key and help prevent these scams and frauds from happening.