Elders increasingly preyed upon
County fights elder abuse

July 2003

By Inga Miller, STAFF WRITER

MARTINEZ -- A Brentwood senior turns over her life savings to a new friend. An 86-year-old Orinda man wires $100,000 to a bank in Cyprus. And a San Francisco resident in his 70s gives up his identity information over the phone.

Financial abuse against seniors is a crime increasingly reported in Contra Costa County. It's also highly preventable, authorities said Wednesday.

Prosecutors called on bankers gathered at the county's McBrien Administration Building to help finger crooks. The session launched a training partnership aimed at arming tellers with the telltale signs of theft.

"This is clearly an area where we can prevent bad things from happen-ing, and to catch the problem when harm is still pretty minimal," Deputy District Attorney Phyllis Redmond said.

The joint effort diverges from the typical work of prosecutors, who tend to respond to crimes after they are committed, District Attorney Bob Kochly noted.

"In the District Attorney's Office, we are used to waiting for people to com-mit crimes and then we go and prosecute them. And we do a pretty good job of that. But the beauty of this partnership is, when it works -- and it will work -- we will be able to take action before the problem and we will be protecting the assets of our senior citizens," Kochly said.

Local seniors have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years to bilkers.

In Brentwood, a 66-year-old widow targeted in a "gypsy sweetheart scam" lost about $200,000 over a nine-month span, prosecutors said. First, her new "boyfriend" asked her to pay for small things, they said, things like dinners.

The boyfriend said his money was tied up. Gradually, the items got bigger. She cashed stocks, and ultimately took out a mortgage on her house, believing the money would be paid back.

The man was sentenced to three years in prison.

Last August, an 87-year-old man in Orinda lost $100,000 before a scam was foiled. The man, now deceased, received a mailer stating he won the Canadian lottery. All he had to do, the mailing stated, was pre-pay the interest to a bank in Cyprus.

A teller at the Orinda Bank of America spotted the scam when he started to wire $70,000 to the bank, and stopped the transaction, prosecutors said. But the senior had previously wired the other $100,000. His health began to fail shortly after losing the money, Redmond said.

"His son feels that the criminal who did this did just the same thing as putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger," she said. "It killed him."

Sometimes, the transactions are initially misconceived to be civil offenses. They aren't reported immediately. When they are, the money is sometimes gone.

"The sooner you pick up the phone, the sooner someone can respond, and the sooner we say, the bleeding stops," said Jenefer Duane, chief executive officer of the Elder Financial Protection Network.

"A lot of times, by the time it gets to the district attorney, the money is all gone. It's across the border. It's been spent on drugs or gambling. It's just gone."

The Bay Area has also had a few success stories.

In San Leandro, a bank employee became suspicious when an older customer came in to close all of her accounts, worth $500,000, at the California Savings Bank. The senior said she had a "new granddaughter," a tenant at the apartment complex she owned.

The bank stalled the transaction, said Patricia McKnight, corporate security officer for the bank. Officials called authorities. And the tenant was arrested outside the bank. The "new granddaughter" allegedly had already bilked her senior landlord out of $14,000, supposedly for renovating her apartment.

Gary Dunn, vice president of compliance at Fremont Investment and Loan, said his bank has been training tellers how to respond in similar circumstances. And the company has reported six incidents of suspicious activity.

"In the business community, we are always saying, 'what's the bottom line -- we can't afford to do this.' But the truth is, we can't afford not to," he said.

Of their investment clients, 75 percent are senior citizens, Dunn said. The bank invites them to watch videos about preventing financial crimes.

Dunn enthusiastically supported an idea aired at the forum to make window stickers for banks. Like Neighborhood Watch signs, they would warn that the suspicious acts against elders are reported.

In 2000, a mere 10 reports of senior financial abuse were reported to the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department and the cities its contracts with for services. That number more than tripled last year, to 34.

Elder abuse investigator Chris Forsyth attributes the rise to better awareness. Statistically, seniors also are becoming a larger segment of the population, providing more opportunity for criminals who prey those who are vulnerable.

"Seniors are the fastest growing segment of our population, and those 80 and older are the fastest component of that group," Kochly said, "So this is a problem that is here today and is going to be bigger tomorrow."