Scamming Seniors

Many senior citizens have worked hard for their retirement, and plan to spend their golden years traveling, spending time with family, or pursuing second careers.  However, con artists are creating schemes that threaten their accumulated wealth.  Below are a few of these plots:

1. IRS Scam. Senior citizens are receiving phone calls from scammers claiming to be IRS agents.  They claim to be calling about unpaid back taxes and threaten the senior with anything from lawsuits to arrest. 
2. Health Care Scam.  People call as health care or Medicare representatives to gain access to personal information.  They will then use this information to call back at a later date and say they spoke with a relative and it is okay to give them their Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers.  In many cases, they use the information to bill Medicare and pocket the money.
3. Great-Grandchild Scam.  Scammers will call seniors and pretend to be a grandchild or great-grandchild and ask for money.  Oftentimes, they know just enough information from the Internet to get the senior to open up.
4. Prescription Scams.  Due to the rising costs of prescription drugs, many seniors are going online to purchase their medicines.  Yet, these drugs can be counterfeit, making this an extremely dangerous scam.  In other circumstances, fraudsters take the money without delivering the drugs.
5. Obituary Scam.  In this scam, fraudsters read obituaries from the paper and call the deceased relative’s family demanding money for a supposed outstanding debt that the deceased left behind. 

See Ana Gonzalez Ribeiro, 7 Costly Scams That Target Senior Citizens, Bankrate, 2015.