NCJ Number
91504
Date Published
1983
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents examples of the types of fraud perpetrated against the elderly as found by the House Select Committee on Aging, and attention is given to who is responsible for policing the frauds and some suggestions for reducing victimization.
Abstract
The elderly are often enticed by advertised work-at-home schemes which promise to provide pay for specified work done for an initial fee from the worker. Typically, after the fee is paid, the firm is never heard from again. The elderly are also frequently victimized by securities and commodities frauds as well as franchise solicitations that require sizable initial investments based on false promises. Related to franchise frauds are distributorship frauds where persons are offered exclusive rights to distribute a product in a certain geographic area for an initial investment. The promises made often fail to materialize. The elderly are often targeted by the hucksters of medical quackery, as they use the mails to advertise phony cures for arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and other medical problems of the elderly. Other frauds perpetrated against the elderly include land and home-improvement frauds, funeral abuses, the sale of used and defective hearing aids, pension fraud, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, and insurance frauds. The most effective way to counter the aforementioned types of fraud is to inform consumers, and law enforcement agencies at the State and Federal levels must increase their efforts to arrest and prosecute fraud perpetrators. Further, the Postal Service needs additional authority to police frauds executed through the mail. H.R. 3973 would give the Chief Postal Inspector the subpoena authority needed to pursue effective investigations.