Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog
Gift cards; while they are a great means of acknowledging someone's birthday, anniversary, or simply to say "thank you," they are also rapidly becoming a means for con artists to scam unsuspecting individuals, especially seniors.
Saturday, June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, which is a day created by the UN in 2012 to draw attention to the millions of older adults who experience elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. With increased longevity, nearly 50 million people in the US alone are age 65 and older. Estimates indicate that by 2050, the global population of people above the age of 60 will exceed the number of younger people.
Unfortunately, this also means that there is a growing need to address the issue of elder abuse as senior citizens are increasingly finding themselves prone to scammers and abuse both from within and without. According to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), as many as 1 in 10 older Americans are abused or neglected each year and only 1 in 14 cases of elder abuse ever comes to the attention of the proper authorities.
