Financial abuse of the elderly is getting worse, and most seniors don’t know how to seek reliable financial help.

“There is no silver bullet that will end the financial abuse of America’s seniors,” says Don Blandin, president and CEO of the non-profit Investor Protection Trust (IPT), which released a survey Wednesday about elder exploitation. IPT conducted the survey after the Consumer Protection Bureau requested more information about the problem.

The experts IPT surveyed said the most common type of abuse is when family members steal or divert funds or property. The next biggest problems are caregiver theft and financial scams perpetrated by strangers.

“Some of those financial scams by strangers can be ones that actually deplete the entire life savings of a senior at the worst possible time in their life,” Blandin says.

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(Westmoreland County) A Greensburg health worker allegedly stole at least $50,000 from a blind, 102-year-old Irwin woman who had employed her for several years, according to police. Candice Marie Kuhn, 40, of Stanton Street faces charges of theft by unlawful taking or disposition, theft by deception and receiving stolen property.

While Kuhn was employed by the elderly woman from June 2007 through November 2011, she wrote numerous checks from the victim’s account for cash, according to a news release from the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office. She allegedly cashed the checks and kept the money. Kuhn cost the elderly woman $50,674 in withdrawals and fees, the district attorney’s office said, including $41,642 in checks written for cash; overdraft fees from 2009-2011 amounting to $4,936; and returned item fees for those years for $4,096.

Kuhn met the elderly woman while working as an aide for a health company, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Kuhn was fired from that job, then blamed the victim for the firing and demanded the woman turn over her finances to her, the affidavit states. Kuhn claims she has power of attorney, the affidavit states.  Before the elderly woman lost her eyesight, Kuhn sat with her and reviewed her bills, the document states, but now the woman doesn’t know what is being done with her money. Read more »

Local senior care experts are urging Ross and West View families to be alert for scammers who may be targeting their senior loved ones with a variety of clever cons that could jeopardize not only their life savings, but also their independence. Older adults often are prime targets for con artists looking to steal their money, property or identifications. And, because the senior population is growing so rapidly, more area seniors than ever are at risk of losing their life savings, their homes and their trust in others.

That’s why the Home Instead Senior Care network, which has offices in Sewickley, Wexford, Franklin Park, and McCandless has teamed up with the National Association of Triads to launch the Protect Seniors from Fraudprogram.  Included in the program is a free Senior Fraud Protection Kit that contains a number of important tools to help families assess how likely their senior is to be a potential target of a scam and advice on how to protect them. Read more »

EAST GOSHEN — Police are searching for two suspects who they say scammed an 89-year-old woman out of $26,000 by preying on her sympathy for a loved one.

According to the Westtown-East Goshen Police Department, the elderly victim received a phone call on July 22 from a man claiming to be an attorney for her grandson, who he said had been involved in a serious car accident involving alcohol.  Police said the man then informed the victim that her grandson was hospitalized and she would need to wire $4,000 immediately to cover the cost of legally representing him. The woman then went to two separate locations and made two $2,000 wire transfers. Read more »

Law enforcement officers from local police departments and the Pennsylvania State Police recently completed criminal investigation training sponsored by the Office of William Shaw Jr., Clearfield County District Attorney and the Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging Inc. Titled, “Victimization of the Elderly: Criminal Investigation & Prosecution,” the training was conducted by Dr. Ronald Costen, PhD, Esq. and Linda Mill, certified fraud examiner, both of the Pennsylvania Institute on Protective Services at Temple University-Harrisburg.

The training provided an overview of issues confronting the law enforcement officers who are investigating crimes committed against older adults. Costen focused on legal, social and psychological issues confronted by the investigator in resolving these cases. Crimes, such as theft, identify theft, access device fraud, forgery, neglect of care dependent persons, homicide and related investigative and prosecutorial issues, were discussed.  Mill focused on investigating financial crimes, working with banks and provided tools for reviewing and organizing financial data.

In his welcoming remarks, Shaw noted that financial exploitation of older adults cannot be tolerated.   “We are pleased to be able to co-sponsor this training with the Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging for our local law enforcement. The training and on-going support from the Protective Services Institute is of the highest quality, and it should enable us to continue our efforts to shed light on this problem and effectively prosecute crimes against the elderly,” said Shaw.  He pointed out that two cases of financial exploitation have already been successfully prosecuted this year resulting in sentences of incarceration and restitution. Read more »

An Easton woman working as a bank teller at a Phillipsburg area credit union stole more than $73,000 from the accounts of several elderly customers over the last five years, police said.

Lisa Frace, 32, of the 1900 block of Ferry Street was an employee of Baker Federal Credit Union on 501 Baltimore St., Lopatcong Township, when the thefts happened from 2007 to the spring of this year, township police said Tuesday.  Frace was charged with seven counts of theft, 35 counts of forgery and 35 counts uttering a forged document. She was released to await court action in Warren County.

The credit union called police in May after a customer questioned an unauthorized withdrawal from her savings account, police said. A review of the customer’s account discovered thousands of dollars were missing over the last few years.  In the same time period, Frace’s teller drawer turned out to be about $4,000 short, and she made about 75 withdrawals from the credit union, often forging customers’ names on withdrawal slips, police said.  Frace signed up several of her customers for online banking, cutting them off from mailed account information, police said.  Lopatcong Detective Michael Patricia is handling the investigation.

This article was written by Frank Warner and published in the The Morning Call.

(Philadelphia) As a City Council secretary making about $60,000 a year, Nancy Gonzalez’s duties include putting together commendations and declarations at the request of Council.  But no one was commending Gonzalez on Tuesday, after she was arrested for allegedly stealing nearly $25,000 worth of Social Security checks from an elderly woman whom she allegedly allowed to live in utter squalor.

The arrest follows a seven-month investigation by the Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit and a Daily News story in May in which Gonzalez denied all theft accusations and claimed that her alleged victim liked to live in filth.  Gonzalez, 51, was arrested at 7 a.m. at her well-kept Torresdale home and charged with 22 offenses including theft, tampering with records and recklessly endangering another person, police said. Read more »

(Mahoning Township)  – A Northumberland woman tried to steal nearly $16,000 from an 83-year-old aunt who is incapacitated in a care facility here, police say.  Using a power of attorney, Elizabeth S. Petersen, 47, tried to transfer $7,480 from her aunt’s accounts to Susquehanna University to cover tuition costs for her son, police said.

According to charges:  In September 2001, Petersen assumed control of her aunt’s affairs, and arrangement that continued until last January.  During that time, Petersen issued checks to herself and her husband from the account, depleting her aunt’s funds and mixing the money with her own.  The money was used for expenses not associated with her aunt.

When the transfer to Susquehanna U. was rejected due to insufficient funds, the bank notified the Columbia-Montour Area Agency on Aging.  The AAA reviewed the financial records and found Petersen took $15,841 from her aunt’s account.  Petersen refused to be interviewed by the Protective Services Worker.

Mrs. Petersen was charged with theft by deception, theft by unlawful taking, theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, receiving stolen property, and dealing with proceeds from unlawful activity, all felonies.  She was arraigned and released on $10,000 unsecured bail.

Major portions of this article courtesy of the Press Enterprise.

Berks County detectives charged an Exeter Township man Wednesday with stealing more than $17,000 from a 71-year-old man who lives in an assisted-living facility in West Reading.

Timothy E. Bowman, no age available, of the 200 block of Crystal Circle was a friend of the victim’s family and had power of attorney to manage the victim’s finances, investigators said. Instead, he took cash to pay for airline tickets, a family cruise and to refinish his basement, authorities said.  He also sold the victim’s car and pocketed the $7,500 in cash, they added.  Authorities said Bowman obtained power of attorney in September.

The victim, whose name investigators did not release, lives in Spruce Manor on Spruce Street in West Reading.  Investigators said the thefts were discovered in February and the case was referred to detectives by the Berks County Area Agency on Aging.

Bowman surrendered at District Judge Timothy M. Dougherty’s office in West Reading.  He was arraigned on theft and related charges and remained free awaiting further court action.

This article is courtesy of the Reading Eagle.

A York Township woman has been charged with stealing more than $300,000 from her elderly relative, the state attorney general announced this week.

Rita L. Wynegar, 52, of the 400 block of Dartha Drive, was acting as power of attorney for her great-aunt when she spent the money for personal uses including a swimming pool, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office.

Officials began investigating the case in 2010 when the elderly woman was on the verge of being evicted from her personal care home. She had failed to pay the home for several months, and the York County Area Agency on Aging sought a consent form to obtain her bank records, the attorney general’s office said.

According to charging documents, Rita Wynegar was named the victim’s power of attorney in 2002 and gained complete control of her finances in 2006. The same year, fraudulent transactions began to appear in the victim’s financial records. In 2006, the elderly woman had more than $20,000 in a checking account and more than $120,000 in certificates of deposit, charging documents state. Read more »