One of the biggest problems with elderly is that they fall prey to fraudsters quite easily being one of the most gullible targets. Main reason of their easy falling to fraud traps is that many of them stay alone devoid of advice and thus are easily wooed by sympathetic or loving conversations even by unknown persons. Lack of knowledge of technology is another cause of rising cases of cyber frauds against elderly. Many of these frauds are through false advertisement campaigns with explicit purpose of duping. In some cases, wisdom prevails after some loss; but in some others, frauds are discovered only by legal heirs after entire life savings having been lost.
In this world of rampant corruption and prevailing incidents of frauds, it is necessary that the elders should be aware of various types of possible scams and take preventive steps so that they are not duped by the fraudsters.
Some Common Frauds:
1. Investment Scams: Many senior citizens often live on interest on life savings and therefore, a couple of additional basis points of interest rates might attract their attention. They often fall prey to fraudulent investment by Ponzi schemes easily as they are promised a substantial high rate of return. There are cases where thousands of senior citizens have lost their entire life’s savings being lured by such schemes.
2. Transfer of Property: Instances are there where seniors have been persuaded to sign blank papers on property transfer papers without their knowledge. Similar cases involving signing of cheques have also been noticed. Close family members or friends have often been found to indulge in such nefarious acts taking advantage of weaker cognitive abilities of older people.
3. False Charities: Many seniors would like to give some amount to charity. There have been cases where elderly people have been duped by false charities through advertisements / telephone calls and huge amounts have been lost.
4. Medicine and Similar Products: Many seniors are induced to buy medicines or anti-aging products at discounted price to save some money. In view of increasing demand for such use, frauds have started happening in these areas in a big way by supplying bogus / under-quality products by fraudsters. This is happening through bogus websites of medicine suppliers.
5. Telephone Frauds: Of late, a significant number of frauds happens through telephone calls. This usually starts informing seniors of some good news like an investment opportunity or winning a lottery or some other fortunate happening. When the elderly person gets convinced about the matter, they are asked to send some money as advance as service charges. The moment amount is remitted, the fraudster vanishes from scene.
6. Internet Frauds: In this technology driven world, the biggest chunk of frauds now-a-days takes place through online means. There are several ways these cyber frauds can take place: through phishing attacks or money vanishing through credit / debit cards or through internet banking by clicking the links that contain some messages like “You have won the lottery” or “Your account will be closed if you do not update your KYC”, among many others. Love scam is also on increase world over where loner elderly people are honey trapped and money being syphoned off. One should also be aware of technical support scam where fraudsters pose as representatives of technological giants like Google or Microsoft and try get the accounts compromised. Many other new tricks of online frauds are continuously on increase in global arena.
Steps Senor Should take to Tackle Fraud:
The first principle in any fraud management is that the senior person should be aware of the possibilities of frauds and be cautious all the time. Both rational as well as intuitive judgmental faculty should be used confronting any situation. Another premise is that no one should be relied on blindly, however close he / she may be.
Some specific strategies could be as under:
a. No investment in the world can ever guarantee the money getting doubled in 2 years or even say giving 2 to 3 per cent more than banking schemes. Seniors must thoroughly enquire credentials before making any such lucrative investment decisions.
b. No one should sign on a blank paper or sign blindly without seeing. The elderly person must go through paper and its content before affixing signature. In case of any doubt, he / she should consult a close family member / friend.
c. Before donating any money for any purpose including charity, the elderly must make a reasonable and rational assessment of its credentials. Similarly, before buying any product including medicines / or similar item, the brand thereof and supplier credentials should be checked. Provision of any good at a substantial discount needs to be probed into.
d. No telephone call from a stranger should be taken on face value. Sometimes, the fraudster tries to dupe a senior by posing as close relative. This possibility should also be guarded against.
e. Being technologically savvy is the only solution to save oneself against cyber frauds. The general guidelines can be:
1. Do not believe in welcome / congratulatory / threatening messages in the internet.
2. Never share your credit card number or UPI pin with anyone.
3. Do not click any unknown link or attachment.
4. Do not trust an email that calls for your personal details and never reply to a person whom you do not know.
5. Do not share any of your personal details like UAN / PAN / Aadhar / Account details / any Password with anyone.
6. Change your mail passwords at least once in 6 months and the password should be strong as well as unique. Do not share the password with anyone.
7. Keep minimum balance in the bank account that is linked to internet banking.
Way Forward:
In any society, frauds and deceptions are bound to stay as good and evil often coexist. Elders need to be extra careful because of their susceptibility and vulnerability to be easily lured. They need to be cautious, think rationally, should not believe blindly anyone and take decisions on merit. Getting digitally literate and following universally accepted safeguards are imperative. At least one person from family or friend circle should be on top of mind in case of any doubt. This way frauds can be minimized while it may be impossible to reduce it to nil.
