The New Age of Fraud

The gentleman who called himself a financial planner wasn’t the average middle aged man you’d expect to be discussing your financial issues with. This character was more what you would describe as being of “AARP” age.

He hooked his clients with his rags to riches story of his humble beginnings and his devout Christian believes. He even had sheets of references, backing up his claims. This was enough proof for over 300 people, mostly senior citizens, to invest in his business.

In less than a year, his Ponzi scheme had scammed more over $30 million out of innocent victims, and destroyed the retirement plans of hundreds of people.

This is becoming more of a common practice then seniors like to admit. The scammer preys on victims in an identifiable group such as age or religion. The frauds usually involve bogus investment offers and older people often end up being the gullible victims.

The moral of these sad stories is, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true”. Many of us assume that we’re smarter then the crook and we can spot him a mile away. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. If you have any doubts, just ask the millions of Americans over the age of 65 who have been financial-fraud victims and many have been conned by their own age group.

Today’s economy has forced many senior citizens to keep on working beyond their anticipated retirement age. Older individuals, even scammers, may be experiencing financial problems. These “senior scammers” are often able to convince their own age group with an image of trust and values. They have stories to tell about Vietnam, grandkids, ailing spouses etc. Before long, the unsuspecting senior citizen has been reeled in and writes a check. Everything is just about completed now, including an empty bank account, and there’s probably no turning back, either.

In order to not become the next senior fraud victim by this generation of baby boomer scammers, we need to stop and access the whole situation before making any immediate financial decisions that could affect the rest of our lives. If we’re being asked for bank, medicare or social security account numbers by someone we have never seen or heard of before, even if he has his list of references with him, we could be in for a lot more then we bargained for.

There is no investment deal that is so good that you can’t have a few days to access it further before signing on the dotted line. If it’s that good, then let the next person grab it if they want too. Tomorrow something better will come up, I can almost assure you.

Source: aarp.org/magazine
personal opinion


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