Millions of seniors are abused every year in the United States. Often the abuse is financial, not physical. In fact, law enforcement officials say the elderly are especially vulnerable to scam artists. KPBS reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.
Wanda Zach came to this country from Czechoslovakia with $3 in her pocket. At first she had to work three jobs just to stay afloat.
So when the 80-year-old Zach had the chance to help a couple of fellow Czech immigrants, she jumped at it.
A girlfriend’s nephew and another man wanted to start a coffee importing business.
Zach: I wanted to help them, because of my girlfriend. And I wanted them also to have a good start here.
So Zach gave the pair around $12,000. Months later, she was told the business flopped.
The nephew went back home. The other man, Ladislav Gala, couldn’t pay the money back. So Zach asked him to help get the home she shared with her husband ready for sale.
Zach: So he did come and help us, but all the time he needed money. He said he wants to buy some real estate. But he says San Diego is too expensive.
Gala said he found an apartment house in Phoenix that he could convert into condominiums. He needed $100,000. Zach gave it to him.
When he later asked for more money, Zach applied for a home equity loan. But her credit union got suspicious, and launched an investigation.
One day, investigators told Zach what they found out: The property in Phoenix didn’t exist.
Zach: I was completely paralyzed by the thought that the whole money, for the real estate, I gave up so many luxuries in life, always bought clothes at thrift stores, and here, there was no money.
Police say Gala ripped off a handful of other seniors in the community, as well. He was convicted of felony elder financial abuse.
Whether it’s a bogus real estate investment, or a lottery scam, financial abuse of seniors is all too common.
Dawn Gibbons: When people think about abuse, or elder abuse, they tend to think about physical abuse. And actually the financial abuse is the most frequent type of abuse we see. People just don’t realize how pervasive a problem that is.
Dawn Gibbons is with the County Department of Adult Protective Services. Her agency investigates reports of elder abuse, and alerts law enforcement when it suspects a crime has been committed.
Gibbons says last year, the County received nearly eleven-thousand reports of elder abuse. But she says that’s a misleading number.
Gibbons: Only one in four or up to one in 25 cases of elder abuse are actually reported. So by all accounts and by all the research in the field, the suspicion is that we’re just only hearing about the tip of the iceberg.
Paul Greenwood is in charge of the elder abuse unit in the County District Attorney’s office.
Greenwood says unfortunately, trust is often the enemy for seniors.
Greenwood: They grew up in an era where you dealt with a person face-to-face, a handshake was their bond, you trust this person, they talk a good talk, they smile, they look to be convincing, and that’s why so many of these elders are taken advantage of.
Greenwood says strangers aren’t the only ones ripping off the elderly. He says more often than not, family members are the culprits.
For years, it’s been mandatory for doctors and social workers to report suspected cases of elder abuse. Thanks to a new state law, banks and financial institutions have joined the list.
At a branch of Union Bank in El Cajon, tellers are on the lookout for any suspicious transactions involving seniors. A new state law requires them to alert police if they think seniors are being taken advantage of.
Customer service manager Michelle Williams lists some of the red flags.
Williams: Cash withdrawals, that are maybe a little bit out of the norm, not something that makes sense. If someone seems disoriented or confused, or they’re adding people onto their accounts. Just having just a little bit of interaction with the client, talking to them, and getting a feel for if this feels right, or if this doesn’t.
Luckily for Wanda Zach, her credit union stepped in before she lost everything.
Still, Zach is out more than 100-grand. She and her husband were counting on that money.
Zach: We had plans to go to a nursing home, we already had the place, you had to put your name on a list. Now it’s all cancelled, we have no future.
A lot of other seniors may someday be in the same boat. The number of Californians aged 65 and older is expected to nearly double within a decade. And these aging baby boomers will have trillions of dollars in assets….making them attractive targets.
Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.
