Swindling of Elderly Gets Lawmakers’ Attention

It’s an increasingly common scenario in an aging society that has bestowed more wealth on its elderly population than almost any generation in history.

A trusted caregiver moves in with an elderly retiree to help with household chores and gradually begins to control the finances. Before long, the ATM rejects a cash request. Forged signatures pop up on checks and other financial documents. And thousands of dollars in jewelry and investments walk out the door in the caregiver’s pockets.

In some cases, a lifetime of savings is drained to nothing before anyone notices. Actually, there is one person in a perfect position to stop the thefts before the money is gone: the neighborhood bank teller who monitors the account. Unfortunately, tellers have been unwilling to blow the whistle because of privacy laws, which prohibit disclosing a customer’s financial records.

That could soon change.

Legislation recently proposed by Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) would protect bank employees from liability and encourage them to report suspected scams to county social workers or police. So far, AB 2253 has won broad support from bankers, prosecutors, social workers and senior advocates.

Proponents say one call from a bank teller could mean the difference between whether a crooked caregiver nurse steals a few hundred dollars from an elderly person or bleeds the account dry.

“Bankers are one of the first lines of defense,” Jackson said. “This is a place where we can take a fairly simple measure and protect a lot of people.”

The bill comes at a significant time. Nationwide, seniors’ population is expected to double in 30 years. By 2030 there will be about 70 million seniors, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

With older Americans holding a large percentage of the country’s wealth, due to canny investing by the frugal World War II generation and indexing of Social Security payments, authorities fear they will become ever more attractive targets for financial exploitation.

In Ventura County, statistics show it is already occurring.

The county’s Adult Protective Services agency has seen a twofold increase in financial elder abuse cases in the past year. A new report shows 28 cases in the past six months. That is about 25% of all reports on elder abuse during the same period, and includes physical and verbal mistreatment.

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For elderly victims, those crimes can be devastating. If the swindlers are not caught and ordered to pay restitution, the money is gone--leaving seniors with no way to get back what was taken.

“Once the property is gone, there is no recovery,” said Shirley Alloway, who oversees the county’s adult services agency. “They are left with zero and a debt they can never repay. It can be much more devastating than the other kinds of referrals we get.”

The devastation is not only financial. Victims often slide into depression, feeling hurt and ashamed for trusting a caregiver or relative who betrayed them.

“It is just very painful to admit that one of your family members has stolen from you,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Bruce Young, who prosecutes elder abuse cases.

“These are people who suffered through the Depression and World War II,” Young said. “They are hard-working and they grew up in a generation where your word is your bond and they trust people.”

That was the case last year for an 86-year-old Simi Valley woman, who rented a room to a convicted drug dealer. James Alvarez, 37, stole $10,000 from her checking account over a six-month period, taking a few hundred dollars at a time.

Alvarez is now serving three years in state prison after pleading guilty in September to financial elder abuse and theft.

In March 1999, Moorpark insurance agent Donna Mitchell, 34, was sentenced to four years in state prison for stealing more than $212,000 in annuities from her ex-husband’s 90-year-old grandmother. Prosecutors say Mitchell forged Gizella Chizma’s name on financial documents for four years and made off with Chizma’s life savings. At the sentencing hearing, Chizma told the judge she was not a wealthy woman, but trusted Mitchell with what little she had.

“I was almost broke, once upon a time. I worked for 50 cents,” Chizma said. “They paid me $15 and I scrubbed clothes when I was her age, and she’s robbing me for that. I feel so terribly hurt . . . because she is not a stranger--wasn’t a stranger to me.”

Jackson’s bill isn’t the first aimed at protecting the elderly. In recent years state legislators have passed a series of laws, the most sweeping of which went into effect last year.

Among that law’s provisions, the bill expanded county services to protect elder and dependent adults and added financial exploitation to the types of abuse that must be reported by law.

In Ventura County, the measure allowed adult services to hire additional caseworkers to operate a 24-hour hotline and investigate reports of abuse.

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But many financial abuse cases come to caseworkers’ attention only after the money is gone and a senior is facing eviction or demands from collection agencies.

That is where the banks come in.

Prosecutors say bank tellers are often well-acquainted with their older customers and have a good idea of their spending habits.

“If they can report it to law enforcement without fear of liability,” Young said, “then we have another ally in cutting off financial elder abuse at the very early stages before the money is gone.”

Banking officials also support Jackson’s proposal, which allows employees to voice concerns when they suspect financial abuse is occurring.

“This is definitely something that we feel is going to be a benefit,” said Maurine C. Padden, senior legislative counsel and vice president of the California Bankers Assn.

“I have received anecdotal reports where the bank feels they are caught in the middle,” she said. “They are fearful of violating the customer’s privacy.”

Jackson’s bill is modeled after a 1995 Oregon law introduced after the state attorney general organized a task force on elder abuse and asked social workers to identify problems that were not being addressed.

“At our very first meeting he said what are the issues,” said Aileen Kaye, abuse prevention program coordinator for the Oregon Senior and Disabled Services Division. “We knew bankers wanted to report some of the scary things they were seeing with some of their customers, but they were unsure whether bankers could do that without liability risk.”

After the bill passed, a statewide training program was launched to teach tellers how to recognize and report abuse.

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In 1998, a coalition of bankers, senior advocates and social workers developed a training kit stocked with manuals and videotapes depicting real-life abuse scenarios. The kit was sent to every bank branch in Oregon and state attorneys general across the country. Kaye said it has since been requested by officials in Japan, Australia, Canada and England.

Jackson’s bill is working its way through the Legislature. In April it sailed through two policy committees with unanimous bipartisan support and is expected to land before the full Assembly in late May. If the bill is passed by lawmakers, California bankers and social workers say they will develop a training program similar to Oregon’s.

“It has definitely helped,” Kaye said of her state’s efforts to curb financial elder abuse. “Because the more quickly we know about it, the more quickly we can intervene.”

Stealing From Seniors

Financial elder abuse is generally defined as the improper use of a senior’s money, property or assets. It can include cashing checks without permission, forging a signature on financial documents, or deceiving or coercing a senior into signing such documents. Red flags that can signal abuse often include:

* Sudden changes in a bank account, such as withdrawals of large sums of money by someone other than the account holder.

* Addition of names to a senior’s bank account.

* Abrupt changes in a will or other financial documents.

* Sudden appearance of previously uninvolved relatives claiming rights to a senior’s property, or unexplained transfers of assets to someone outside the family.

By state law, elder is defined as any person age 65 or older and caregiver as any person who cares for an elder or stands in a position of trust with that person.

To report elder abuse in Ventura County, call the adult and child protective service 24-hour hotline at 654-3200.

Source: Ventura County Adult Protective Services and the National Center on Elder Abuse in Washington