Source: BBC News and comparitech.com published on this site Thursday 28th June 2018 by Jill Powell
The BBC have today highlighted a report from the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies warning of the "stigma" felt by elderly people about being cheated, including online scams.
It warns that the over-65s are three times more likely to lose money to fraudsters than to be burgled.
Fraud victim, Dolores Walker, aged 93, said it made her feel "ashamed".
She said she spoke to no-one "about my experience with scammers", in which she had been tricked into giving card details.
"In the end, I just stopped answering the phone altogether in the hope that they would leave me alone."
The report, from the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies at the University of Portsmouth and elderly helpline Reassura, says the increase in elderly people using the internet has brought more risks of fraud.
In the 65 to 74-year-old age range, the study says people are 54 times more likely to be a victim of fraud or computer scams than they are to be physically robbed.
Prof Mark Button, director of the fraud studies centre, estimated that about 10% of the 3.2 million annual frauds are perpetrated against the elderly.
The most common are identity theft, inflated or fake fees for services and online shopping scams.
But the report warns of bogus charities, investment fraud, fake competitions, dating scams, health frauds and false claims for debts.
Many elderly people have faced multiple fraud attempts - and scams can lead to them being swindled out of tens of thousands of pounds.
Comparitech have produce a list of “70+ Scams and How to Avoid Them” In the introduction to the list they say:
“The internet is the most widely used communication network ever constructed. It’s used by millions of humans and machines every second of every day. There are good and bad things happening on the interne, and among the bad things are ongoing attempts to scam innocent people out of their money or identities.
Indeed, wherever there’s a slight opportunity of making some easy money, you can be sure that criminals lay ready to pounce. The internet brings with it many such opportunities, and fraudsters appear to be waiting around every virtual corner with the latest in online scams.
While some scams have gotten very sophisticated, even some of the older, less advanced plays still actually work. If people know more about the types of scams taking place and what to look out for, we can hopefully save at least some people from getting swindled out their hard-earned cash.
We’ve covered some specific types of scams in various dedicated posts, but here we’ll offer a roundup of many of the scams currently in operation.
To view the list click: http://compari.tech/avoid-scams
