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| Attorney General Mark Brnovich - Gage Skidmore |
With sunny weather year-round, a dry climate, and slow-paced small towns
nestled into iconic Southwestern scenery, there’s a reason Arizona is
the
third-most desirable retirement destination in the country.
In fact, one in four Arizona residents is over the age of 60.
Those in their golden years tend to have more gold in the bank than younger people.
But that just makes Arizona seniors a plum target for a slew of financial crimes, including extortion and identity theft.
A study
released this month by NiceRx, an online pharmacy and medical
clearinghouse based in the United Kingdom, ranked Arizona ninth in the
U.S. among states where elder fraud is most rampant. The study is based on data from a 2020 FBI report on elder fraud.
“Elder abuse is a serious problem,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a statement.
“Older adults may become vulnerable due to isolation, physical or
mental disabilities and dependence on others for assistance.”
Since 2020, more than 3,000 Arizona residents over the age of 60 have
been defrauded out of more than $27 million, according to the NiceRx
study.
Brnovich suspects that the actual number of victims is as many as 6,900,
but that “elderly victims are often reluctant to report abuse because
they feel ashamed, embarrassed, humiliated, afraid, and may even defend
the abuser.”
Three out of four victims of elder abuse in Arizona are white women,
like 71-year-old Flora, who was scammed so badly she filed bankruptcy in
2020, and whose full name we are withholding to protect her privacy
It was just four months before the FBI’s Phoenix Field Office published an official warning regarding the scourge of elder fraud in Arizona.
Flora flew from Illinois to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport thinking she was meeting her fiancé.
No one showed up from the airport.
Instead, the scammers convinced her to empty her bank account at a
Walmart register. She was instructed to buy pre-loaded gift cards and
send back photos of the 16-digit number embossed in raised lettering on
the front of the card, giving scammers access to the balance.
Scammers favor gift cards “because they are easy for people to find and
buy, and they have fewer protections for buyers compared to some other
payment options,” the Federal Trade Commission said in a December statement.
Scammers cash out quickly and anonymously, and the transaction is largely irreversible.
Gift cards can even resell above face value on the secondary market, according to Mountain View, California-based NortonLifeLock, a Fortune 500 cybersecurity company.
Flora, who lives near Chicago, was completely broke and stranded in the
Phoenix suburb of Gilbert after purchasing the gift cards there.
She couldn't even afford one night at a nearby hotel, a police report revealed.
“As soon as you provide the gift card number and any sort of security
code that's present on the card, the scammer can access those funds,”
Gilbert Police Department spokesperson Brenda Carrasco said. “In
addition, it’s important to note that scams can also be cyclical such as
during holiday and tax seasons.”
The elderly scam victim spent 24 hours inside a Subway restaurant near
Power and Ray roads before Gilbert Police Officer Adam Walicke bought
her a plane ticket home and drove her to Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport.
Police later determined that the California driver’s license for the no-show fiancé was counterfeit. No such person exists.
The usual protocol for a situation like that one would involve transporting the victim to a homeless shelter.
“Flora was stuck in Arizona with no means to survive,” Walicke said.
Romance scams rank seventh among the most prevalent crimes against
people over 60, claiming about 6,800 victims in the U.S. last year,
according to the NiceRx study.
However, romance scams are the most costly. Those 6,800 victims doled
out more than $281 million last year — an average loss of more than
$41,000 per victim.
“Playing on the vulnerabilities and even the good nature of the elderly
victims, romance scams use personal relationships to secure payments and
even fraudulent investments,” the study’s authors wrote. “These
relationships may involve the criminal impersonating a loved one or may
involve them creating an online persona to win the trust of a victim.”
Flora sent her faux beau money consistently for more than a year before
flying to Phoenix, according to a Gilbert Police Department
investigation report.
“Scammers will create a sense of urgency and indicate there will be
consequences if fees are not paid,” Carrasco said. “Victims can be
instructed to make several purchases at different stores. Some scammers
may keep their victims on the phone while they complete the task.”
Fraud cases in Gilbert jumped more than 30 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to police records.
Although local cops never determined if the charlatans in Flora's case
were operating their scam in metro Phoenix, the U.S. Department of
Justice later nabbed a Phoenix woman in a “nationwide grandparent fraud
scam.”
In October 2020, the Justice Department vowed to curb the financial
exploitation of elderly Arizonans with a $1.5 million injection into two
anti-fraud organizations in Tempe and Whiteriver in Navajo County.
“With lockdowns in place across the country, older adults are especially
vulnerable to fraud, neglect, and abuse, and criminals have not
hesitated to take full advantage,” then-Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney
General Katharine Sullivan said in
Phoenix at the time. “These grants will help to turn the tide of
deception and predation and restore victims to fiscal security and
physical safety.”
In August 2021, a federal grand jury indicted eight people,
including a Phoenix woman, in a $2 million scam that victimized people
over 70 by feeding them phony stories that their grandchildren were in
trouble and needed quick cash.
“This scheme has left many elderly victims financially and emotionally
devastated,” Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a
statement. “It is unconscionable to target the elderly and exploit their
love for their grandchildren. Elder fraud is a serious crime against
some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens.”
Lyda Harris, from Laveen Village in Phoenix, was arrested last year
hiding out in Albania. Federal prosecutors are seeking her extradition
back to the United States.
Harris is accused in federal district court in Southern
California of posing as a distressed grandchild, using a well-rehearsed
script to convince victims that she was in dire legal trouble.
The scam generated as much as $57,000 per day, according to the indictment.
The scammers “took elaborate steps to conceal their true identities from victims and law enforcement,” federal prosecutors said.
They used fake names, rented cars and apartments to receive and pick up
cash, which they would then convert to untraceable cryptocurrency within
minutes, according to the indictment.
Harris’ co-defendants would play other actorial roles in the scam, including lawyers, bail agents, and medical workers.
“I know some victims may be reluctant to come forward because they feel
embarrassed that they fell for this hoax,” Grossman said. “But I want to
assure victims that it is not your fault. You are one of many, many
people who were deceived by a sophisticated criminal organization whose
members concocted a number of plausible storylines and conspired
together to trick you. These are unscrupulous manipulators who prey on
the elderly. They are to blame, not you.”
Popular YouTube channels churn out videos where pranksters waste the
time of potential scammers and lead them on a series of ludicrous
diversions. The increasing popularity of such videos could have had a
hand in the increased awareness of fraud and scams, especially those
targeting elderly people.
In 2021, the term “elder fraud” saw a 32 percent increase in searches,
with 6,120 such queries in the U.S. compared to 4,620 in 2020, according
to data taken from Google Keywords Planner for the NiceRX study.
Still, elder fraud is up more than 150 percent in Arizona since 2019.
More than half of elder fraud victims in Arizona are duped at the hands
of trusted family members, friends, and neighbors, according to the
Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Authorities agree that educating elderly loved ones is the best way to
combat the most pervasive cons — extortion, phishing, and tech support
scams.
“We encourage our community members who may have family members at risk
of falling for these scams to check in on them routinely,” said
Carrasco, the police spokesperson. “Establish a system where they notify
a trusted contact immediately should someone ask for their personal and
financial information.”
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