One often comes across crime stories of elder abuse in the way of neglect, psychological and physical, or sexual abuse. Another crime to note is when an elderly person’s resources or money is misused and usually without consent to provide advantages for another party or oneself. Identity theft is also there in which case family members, caregivers or even complete strangers try to use the saved up cash of the elderly people which includes credit and other benefits.

On the subject of crime stories there is a case of a man of 100 years in Florida who was exploited by an employed caregiver. This caregiver was guilty of theft of the man’s identity with which phone number and cable TV accounts were handled. Charges against the caregiver included theft of identity and exploitation of the elderly.

Elderly people can be victims of financial and identity theft in the following ways; mortgage and investment fraud and fraud of credit cards, fraudulent check cashing in which checks are forged in the name of the old person or using checks payable to the elder. To include to these crime stories, there are cases when there are awards of prize money in which the information the person gives is exploited, also urgent donation charity scams that take place on the phone. Fraud, theft of identity and financial fraud are sadly carried out by a trusted party such as a loved one or caregiver.

It is worthwhile to try and understand why elders are more vulnerable in cases of financial fraud and identity theft in the crime storieswe hear about. Aged citizens come under one of the following categories that make them the perfect victims of such types of crime. An aged person who prepared for old age well would have a lot of resources such as home equity, cash reserves and money saved up. Also since most of the old people have more money than they can utilize effectively they probably won’t use credit. Since they don’t use it much they won’t go through the credit reports frequently. There are always exceptions to the rule but it is generally accepted that old people have limited understanding of technology and are susceptible to online scams. Dependant seniors for example those that reply on caregivers, staff of the retirement home and loved ones can be victimized as their information is easy to get hold of. Sadly, the case mentioned earlier about the 100 year old man is just one of many cases that happen all the time.

crime stories

Some more crime stories about identity theft and exploitation of old people are as follows; a man of 57 years was charged with 17 counts of fraud, criminal impersonation and identity theft in Anchorage which is in Alaska. He had stolen the identity of an 82 year old to obtain around 7 credit cards with which he bought $34,000 worth of goods. In Hinesville, GA there was a caregiver who had had 43 victims of abuse and identity theft for financial gain. A nurse in Birmingham had charges of neglect, abuse and she stole personal info from one of her patients to buy $5000 worth of services and goods. Caregivers or strangers aren’t always the perpetrators, in one case an elderly person’s granddaughter and son misused power of attorney and got hold of $16,000. The granddaughter stood convicted of 92 counts involving forgery and theft of identity.