More seniors, more opportunities

Aside from the impact of greater awareness, the number of older adults is on the rise here and everywhere. There are about 15 million more Americans age 65 and older today than there were at the turn of the century. By 2030, there are projected to be at least 20 million more than today.

That creates potential for many more financial victims, which research studies have suggested could occur with at least 5 percent of older adults. The amount taken from them totals in the billions each year, though estimates vary widely.

While a relatively small percentage of seniors have serious cognitive deficits from Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia, the natural aging process can harm many people’s judgment related to money in their 60s and beyond, said Daniel Marson, a University of Alabama-Birmingham emeritus professor of neurology who has studied financial decision-making among the cognitively impaired elderly.

“This isn’t to say that every older adult is vulnerable, but as you age normally, your brain ages like every other organ in the body, and your short-term memory, your flexibility, your problemsolving abilities, decline relative to earlier baseline,” Mr. Marson said. “That can affect your ability to make good financial decisions and can enhance your vulnerability to undue influence. Not everybody who is scammed is somebody who has Alzheimer’s.”

Due to their relative unfamiliarity with computers, their often-trusting nature over the phone and their willingness to open the door to someone with a shady home remodeling proposal, older adults are often targeted for scams by criminals. Some victims end up wiring money to someone making an out-of-country transaction that becomes difficult to investigate and prosecute.

Far more commonly, however, the perpetrator is someone they know. And more often than not, it is a younger family member, say investigators and researchers.

Anthony Turo, executive director of Ursuline Support Services, one of three agencies contracted by the