Top Scams for Seniors, Elder Law Attorney, Woodstock, GA

An IRS impersonation fraud that has victimized thousands of Americans leads a 2017 U.S. Senate ranking of the Top 10 scams targeting senior citizens. Dubbed by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration as the most pervasive impersonation fraud in IRS history, the swindle involves suspected scammers based in the U.S. and India who telephone Americans and threaten arrests unless purported tax debts aren’t paid immediately. At least 1.97 million people have been targeted, with as many as 200 victimized per week during the scam’s peak last year, according to the inspector general. Other frauds that made the Senate Aging Committee’s rankings include:

• Sweepstakes scams, run by perpetrators who contact victims by phone, tell them they’ve won a financial prize, and then require advance payment of a fee to collect the purported winnings.
• Robocalls, using advanced electronic technology that enable would-be scammers to maximize the number of potential victims reached.
• Computer scams a fraud in which callers impersonate representatives of well-known technology companies and convince victims to allow remote access to their home computers to check for problems. The scammers then charge fees to remove purported electronic viruses.
• Elder financial abuse, in some cases involving relatives or friends who gain access to victims’ identification data, bank accounts or other records.
• Grandparent scams, a con game in which fraudsters phone with phony claims that a grandchild is in trouble and needs help paying a hospital bill, returning home from overseas or gaining release from jail.

Source/more: USA Today

The IRS, Social Security Administration, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services never make phone calls asking for bank information or Social Security numbers.

The Senate report advised seniors and other Americans to never give out personal information by phone and always keep personal and financial documents secure.