During March, The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) wants you to know more about the different scams fraudsters use to steal money or identities. Each day, social media posts will be issued with information about a different scam. Share our tweets and Facebook posts with your friends and family, and talk about these scams. The more you know about a specific scam, the less likely you are to be a victim.

• Every study ever taken has revealed the same fact, the elderly are much more likely to be targeted by fraudsters then younger Canadians, for many reasons:

• Senior citizens are most likely to have a “nest egg,” to own their home, and/or to have excellent credit—all of which make them attractive to con artists.

• People who grew up in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were generally raised to be polite and trusting. Con artists exploit these traits, knowing that it is difficult or impossible for these individuals to say “no” or just hang up the telephone.

• Older Canadians are less likely to report a fraud because they don’t know who to report it to, are too ashamed at having been scammed, or don’t know they have been scammed. Elderly victims may not report crimes, for example, because they are concerned that relatives may think the victims no longer have the mental capacity to take care of their own financial affairs.

• When an elderly victim does report the crime, they often make poor witnesses. Con artists know the effects of age on memory, and they are counting on elderly victims not being able to supply enough detailed information to investigators. In addition, the victims’ realization that they have been swindled may take weeks—or more likely, months—after contact with the fraudster. This extended time frame makes it even more difficult to remember details from the events.

• Senior citizens are more interested in and susceptible to products promising increased cognitive function, virility, physical conditioning, anti-cancer properties, and so on. In a country where new cures and vaccinations for old diseases have given every Canadian hope for a long and fruitful life, it is not so unbelievable that the con artists’ products can do what they claim.

Please follow this link to check out the Governments Anti Fraud Centre information packets on various types of Fraud.