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Senior citizens
Ripped off at retirement

Seniors are getting robbed at retirement.

And, there is not much to do about some of it.

Elder financial abuse is up 12% this year.

There was a study by MetLife saying that there is a cost of $2.9 billion dollars every year for the theft.

Someone will set up a senior with fake investments or prize possibilities etc.

The worst is the daily caregiver who steals from the senior.

That can be a family member or a regularly trusted worker who comes in often. Family members cover 34% of those crimes.

Lost items can be small, or it can be money from credit cards or checks that are written for items not needed or for people not needed.

Often it is cash and jewelry that are easily stolen.

These people can handle accounts, and as the senior gets more and more senile the worse it can get. Things are not always what they seem.

My uncle in the past started spending more and more money on some "Australian Lottery scam".

In the end, they had taken him for more than $30,000.00 and that was just one deal gone wrong.

He was taken for some publishing house deal where he set the whole house up with balloons and had a party because he had won something and of course it never came to him.

Medications can and do dull the mind in a lot of cases and the folks taking them are run over by the bus for it.

There are medications designed to help people get a nights sleep but also leave them in a state of stupidity for the rest of the next day, as well.

People using the drugs get worse as it goes on and care workers can insist that they take the drugs and the senior doesn't realize what is happening to them.

Most of the victims are more than 80 years old, and of them it is women who are twice as likely to get scammed.

Even if you are younger than 80 you need to watch out when someone or some situation happens where your money is possibly in their hands.

Check your elderly relatives financial situation early on and keep an eye on what is happening with their money and other financial assets.