News

Did you know that, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, financial exploitation was the second leading type of elder abuse reported in Wisconsin in 2017? Elder financial exploitation is when someone illegally or improperly uses an elder’s money or other assets for the benefit of someone other than the elder. This could occur through misuse of fiduciary power that has been granted to them, verbal or physical threats or fraud. Abusers can be strangers but often times are someone close to the victim.

For example, John helps take care of his grandma, Grandma Smith. He stops over a couple times a week with groceries, mows the lawn, returns books to the library, and takes care of miscellaneous tasks around the house. He figures as “payment” for his help, it’s OK to take a couple checks out of Grandma’s wallet and write them out for cash for when he’s a little tight on money. He would only do it if it was an emergency, so he tells Grandma Smith that she must have just misplaced the checks. That’s OK, right?

No, John would be committing financial abuse. As a financial institution, our staff are well situated to recognize red flags like this, and assist potential victims of elder abuse. By getting to know our customers we can recognize when customer’s behaviors and financial habits change.

Changes can be indicative of exploitation or fraud. Understanding key indicators such as someone suddenly becoming involved in financial matters and accompanying the elder to conduct transactions, large uncharacteristic withdrawals or spending patterns, or signs of the elderly customer being afraid, stressed or confused.

Staff is trained to recognize the signs of common fraud scenarios and ask questions to assist with determining if the customer is at risk of becoming a victim of a scam such as:

• Lottery and sweepstakes scams involved the victim winning a contest which they have not entered and being required to send money to pay processing fees or taxes.
• IRS or other government agency scam where the caller indicated harsh penalties including jail time if the victim does not pay a fine or past monies immediately.
• Home repair scams involving dishonest contractors who indicate something needs unnecessary repairs or charge for more work than is done.

Community First Bank not only does our financial institution duty of preventing elder abuse as diligently as we can, we leverage our personal relationships with our customers to protect them from financial exploitation and other scams.

https://acl.gov/news-and-events/announcements/acl-launches-online-hub-elder-justice-resources

https://eldermistreatment.usc.edu/weaad-home/tools-and-tips/#luv

https://eldermistreatment.usc.edu/national-center-on-elder-abuse-ncea-usc/national-center-on-elder-abuse-publications/