Home Instead Senior Care Launches Senior Fraud Awareness Campaign/svejo

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Home Instead Senior Care, the nation’s largest provider of in-home companion care services, today announced the launch of its Protect Seniors from FraudSM program. This new initiative empowers older Americans and their families by arming them with the information and tools they need to help protect themselves from con artists targeting the elderly.

These scammers are proving successful with victims of elder financial abuse currently estimated to experience an annual financial loss of $2.9 billion.* Often retired, less mobile, more reliant on others and home for unannounced calls or visits, seniors are frequently perceived as “easy prey” by scammers. Seniors are also quickly becoming the largest population segment. Coupled, these trends increase the risk for a number of crimes —particularly those involving identity theft, Medicaid/Medicare fraud and financial exploitation.

“Increasingly, scams targeting seniors are a threat to the financial stability and safety of our nation’s seniors, putting many at risk for losing their life savings or homes—not to mention their trust in others,” said Jisella Dolan, Vice President and General Counsel, Home Instead, Inc., the franchisor for Home Instead Senior Care. “But there are easy steps seniors and their families can take to help prevent these crimes. Protect Seniors from Fraud will help reduce the risk by educating potential victims.”

The Protect Seniors from Fraud program, developed with expert advice from senior-crime prevention organization the National Association of Triads, Inc., provides a number of free online resources, including a Senior Fraud Protection Kit with scam prevention tips, risk assessment tools, and advice on what to do if you or a loved one is scammed. Specific precautions found in these materials, which seniors and their families can implement to help avoid falling victim to con artists, include:

Shredding any documents useful to criminals, such as bank statements, credit card statements and offers,
Registering on the national Do-Not-Call Registry and hanging-up on all solicitation calls, and
Being wary of individuals who have newly befriended you or a loved one, and make an effort to get to know them.
Perhaps even more alarming than the crimes themselves, is the fact that many seniors are reluctant to report them, which makes it difficult for authorities to capture these con artists. A recent AARP study** revealed that only 25 percent of crime victims over age 55 have reported to authorities they’ve fallen for a scam.

“These seniors may be afraid to be seen as vulnerable by the law, and those in a position to tell them that perhaps they are not fit to continue living by themselves,” said Ed Hutchison, Director of the National Association of Triads, Inc. “It’s a perceived threat of a loss of independence that drives many to keep quiet.”

With the free tips and the campaign resources made available through Protect Seniors from Fraud, however, seniors, their families and caregivers don’t have to be unwitting victims of those seeking to take advantage of them. For more information about the program, and to access the free online materials, visit www.ProtectSeniorsFromFraud.com.