The statistics are sobering: Small-time “Ma-and-Pa” scammers and family members are preying in ever-larger numbers on senior citizens who are lonely and losing the ability to recognize that they are being exploited.
Nearly one in 20 adults can expect to be milked financially after the age of 60, according to a 2017 study by Cornell University and the Toronto-based York University, which found that increased atrophy and less connectivity in the brain makes otherwise healthy senior citizens more susceptible to con artists’ schemes.
