help prevent elder financial abuse

June 13, 2025

 

Elder financial abuse is a growing problem in our country. Sometimes it is committed by people the victim knows, like a family member or a caregiver. Other times, strangers are running scams to steal money from the elderly. It is estimated that elderly Americans lose more than $36.5 billion collectively each year from elder financial abuse.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day was June 15, making this a good time to talk about how we can help protect older adults from being taken advantage of. Here are some tips

1. protect financial assets

Do as much banking online as possible. If you are not comfortable with banking online, have a trusted family member help you. Online banking gives you the ability to review your accounts 24/7 and set up alerts to monitor suspicious activity. Also, add a trusted contact to financial accounts. This person would not have access to the account. They would simply be a point of contact if the account holder cannot be reached.

If you do give family members access to your accounts, consider giving that access to more than one person from separate sides of the family, if possible, to avoid one family member stealing from you.

2. monitor credit

This is something everyone should do to ensure their identity has not been stolen, or accounts have not been opened in their name by someone else. When that happens, criminals often apply for loans in your name with no intention of paying them back. That negatively impacts your credit when loan payments are late or never received. You can request free credit reports from each of the three credit reporting agencies—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—at annualcreditreport.com.

3. block unwanted calls and texts

If you don’t know how to do this, check with your phone company to block robocalls and texts. You should also add all of your phone numbers to the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry. Doing this won’t stop scammers completely, but it will cut down on unwanted calls and texts, even for legitimate telemarketers you don’t want to hear from.

Large cash withdrawals are a red flag

A common scam is convincing elderly Americans that their bank or credit union is trying to steal from them. These scammers encourage people to withdraw large amounts of cash and hand it over to the scammer to deposit into a different account to which the scammer has access. Financial institutions are highly regulated by the government and will not steal from you.

Please follow these tips to help yourself and/or your loved ones avoid these crimes, which often drain the elderly of their life savings. If you suspect you or someone you know is the victim of elder financial abuse, you can report it to the following agencies:

Look for more information about scams and other important information on our blog.