Strategies for Tackling Elder Fraud
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*Content Warning: Suicide
Amy Nofziger, CFE, director of victim support for AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, led a lively – and sometimes sobering – conversation with attendees during her roundtable discussion of elder fraud on Wednesday, the last day of the 34th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference. During the session, attendees put their heads together to strategize ways to help people realize when they’ve been victimized by a romance scam, erase the stigma of being a victim of fraud, contemplate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on consumer fraud and how to talk to loved ones about fraud.
Nofziger kicked off the session by telling attendees what scams are trending on the AARP’s fraud victim helpline. The most common frauds people are calling about are tech support scams, cryptocurrency scams, romance scams and sweepstakes scams. After that, Nofziger shifted gears to get the discussion going. The first question she posed to attendees was how they could convince someone they love that they’re being victimized by a romance scam. Nobody wants to believe someone they’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with could simply be using them for money. Helping a loved one — especially an older parent — see that they’re being taken advantage of can be a difficult task. Attendees talked amongst themselves, then Nofziger walked around the room asking several attendees what strategies they came up with. Here are some of those strategies:
Be gentle and approach the discussion with empathy. As one attendee pointed out, when someone is in the fog of a romance scam, they’re at an emotional level because they think they’re in love. Nofziger reminded attendees, “You’re dealing with adults; they’re capable of making bad decisions.”
Remember that it’s hard to think critically when you’re in an emotional state, and it might help to walk them through it to help come to the realization on their own that they’re being taken advantage of. One attendee mused that it would be great to have an app that’s serves as a decision tree for determining whether you’re a victim of a romance scam.
Think of being a victim of a romance scam like it’s an addiction to drugs or alcohol. According to Nofziger, the brain chemistry of people in romance scams is similar to the brain chemistry of people who have an addiction. Families might consider dealing with the victim like they would with a loved with an addiction to drugs by engaging in harm reduction, therapy and setting boundaries.
The next question Nofziger posed to attendees was how they’d erase the stigma attached to elder fraud. Being a victim of fraud is often embarrassing, so much so that an elder fraud victim will stay silent, never telling anyone they’ve been victimized. Even more sobering, according to Nofziger, is that some elder fraud victims are so shrouded in shame that they die by suicide. Because of this, destigmatizing elder fraud is essential. Here are some of the ideas that attendees had about how to erase the stigma around elder fraud:
One attendee said that the first step to erasing stigma is changing the language we use with fraud victims. “The shift needs to start with how we talk to people.” One way to change the language is to avoid blame and never tell a victim that they brought the fraud on themselves. Again, having empathy for others is the key. Nofziger suggested saying: “I’m so sorry that happened to you. Going forward, we’ll figure this out together.”
Many attendees pointed out that fraud is pervasive, and it doesn’t matter who you are—anybody can be a victim of fraud. Indeed, some attendees, many of whom are Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs), mentioned having loved ones who had been victims of fraud.
Nofziger suggested that some attendees come up with a script they can rely on for talking to victims.
Nofziger’s third question to the audience concerned AI and if attendees thought it would have an impact on elder fraud. Surprisingly, many didn’t think it would change much about fraud schemes. As Nofziger, mused, the scripts that fraudsters use to scam people probably wouldn’t change much even if written by AI.
The last question that Nofziger posed to the audience was about how fraud examiners could talk to elderly loved ones about fraud. Fraud needs to be at the center of regular conversations within families to protect loved ones from falling victim to fraud. One important way that attendees discussed talking to loved ones about frauds is to bring up schemes they’ve seen in the news and ask loved ones how they would handle a situation.
