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What is Elder Financial Abuse (Elderly Fraud)?
Elder financial abuse, also known as elderly fraud, refers to the exploitation or theft of financial resources from older adults. This form of abuse is growing rapidly and is typically perpetrated by scammers, caregivers, or even family members.
What form does Elderly fraud commonly take ?
Elder fraud takes many forms, including digital banking fraud and scams, such as:
Because older adults can be less tech savvy and rely more on others for daily tasks, they can be more vulnerable to both social engineering attacks, like phishing attacks, and digital exploitation.
Why is Elder Financial Abuse a growing threat?
Older adults often have accumulated assets, and are less familiar with digital technologies.
Coupled with the rapid evolution of fraud due to artificial intelligence, these factors make them attractive targets for fraudsters using phone, email, social media, or even in-person manipulation.
How can financial institutions help prevent Elderly Fraud?
Financial institutions (FIs) play a critical role in identifying and preventing elder financial abuse. FIs can reduce the instances of elderly fraud by adopting modern digital banking fraud prevention tools like:
Institutions should also remain compliant with banking regulations and standards,and invest in education and fraud awareness to better protect their senior customers.
Additional resources:
Keywords:
What is Elder Financial Abuse (Elderly Fraud)?
Elder financial abuse, also known as elderly fraud, refers to the exploitation or theft of financial resources from older adults. This form of abuse is growing rapidly and is typically perpetrated by scammers, caregivers, or even family members.
What form does Elderly fraud commonly take ?
Elder fraud takes many forms, including digital banking fraud and scams, such as:
- Identity theft: an attacker steals personal information, such as a customer’s social security number or birth date, to impersonate them for financial gain.
- Impersonation scams: scammers impersonate a bank official, a a grandchild or other family member, or a government official.
- Romance scams: fraudsters build fake romantic relationships with victims to manipulate them into sending valuable items or money
- Tech support scams: when scammers trick banking customers into paying them to fix a non-existent computer problem.
- Unauthorized account access or withdrawals: fraudsters gain illegal or unauthorized access to a customer’s account and potentially withdraw their funds.
Because older adults can be less tech savvy and rely more on others for daily tasks, they can be more vulnerable to both social engineering attacks, like phishing attacks, and digital exploitation.
Why is Elder Financial Abuse a growing threat?
Older adults often have accumulated assets, and are less familiar with digital technologies.
Coupled with the rapid evolution of fraud due to artificial intelligence, these factors make them attractive targets for fraudsters using phone, email, social media, or even in-person manipulation.
How can financial institutions help prevent Elderly Fraud?
Financial institutions (FIs) play a critical role in identifying and preventing elder financial abuse. FIs can reduce the instances of elderly fraud by adopting modern digital banking fraud prevention tools like:
- Behavioral biometrics
- Context-aware authentication
- Risk-based authentication
- Passwordless authentication
- Silent authentication
- Real-time transaction monitoring
Institutions should also remain compliant with banking regulations and standards,and invest in education and fraud awareness to better protect their senior customers.
Additional resources:
- More information on passwordless authentication
- Video: Friction for fraudsters, not customers
Keywords:
- Elder Financial Abuse | Senior fraud protection | Financial abuse of the elderly
