Elder fraud is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States, with several research studies reporting that the elderly lose more than $3 billion every year to financial fraud and investment scams.
Earlier today, Mark Maddox joined Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson and Nancy Stone of the Senior Medicare Patrol on WFYI’s No Limits with John Krull for a discussion on Elderly Fraud. Among other things, the panel talked about common investment scams that target the elderly, what children of aging parents can do to protect their elderly parents from becoming investment fraud victims and the red flags of elder fraud.
“Seniors are targeted for a number of reasons; many have money, some are retired or lonely. We see a lot of seniors these days who have been preyed upon by people they trust: greedy children, unscrupulous caregivers. One of the biggest cases we worked on a few years ago and which was seen in the movie, the Wolf of Wall Street, concerned Jason Belfort and Stratton Oakmont. His boiler room operation stole about $200 million from customers – most of whom were seniors,” said Mark Maddox of Maddox Hargett & Caruso on today’s program.
If you missed today’s show, you can listen to it here.