An elderly person once told me that he had been scammed. When asked how, he said that he received a message that he had won a lottery prize worth RM1,000,000. In order to get the money into Malaysia, he needed to pay deposits. He managed to send two deposits of RM10,000 each until the bank stopped him. Only then did he realise that he had been scammed. The fact that he had never bought a lottery ticket did not occur to him.
Indeed, this is one form of money scam that targets the elderly—sweepstakes and lottery. Other forms of financial scams that target older adults include Government impersonation scams; romance or love scams; investments scams; et cetera.
According to the Commercial Crime Investigation Department, from 2019 to Jun 2021, 5,535 became victims of the Macau Scam and 29.3 per cent of them were above 51 years of age. Elderly men were more susceptible to investment scam or lottery scam while, elderly women were more susceptible to love scam.
These elderly are being targeted due to several factors. Firstly, their strong financial position. At this age, they have their savings, EPF or gratuity. Secondly, some of them live on their own and are not aware of scams. They live separately from their children who only know of their parents being duped only after it happened. Thirdly, the elderly tend to be trusting of others. They trust people easily and become easy prey for con artists. Fourthly, they feel insecure and will hand over their money to scammers easily when pressured to do so. Finally, the shame of being a victim causes them to not report the incident. This makes it easier for the scammers.
Another form of financial abuse that preys on the elderly is the Elderly Financial Abuse (EFA) or also known as exploitation. EFA occurs when someone steals money or valuables belonging to the elderly. Many elderly need the help of others to manage their finances and care for them. For example, there are mothers or fathers who are healthy, but in order to make things easier, they ask one of the children, most probably their favourite, to withdraw money from the ATM machine on their behalf. If the parent is sick, the dependency on the particular child will be even more pronounced.
There is nothing wrong in the elderly putting their trust on their favourite child or their neighbours. However, such people may break the trust and use the opportunity to steal the money for themselves.
We need to address financial abuse among the elderly because such a ‘crime’ is quite difficult to detect compared to physical abuse. In fact, it can happen continuously without anyone noticing it. Unfortunately, the impact is serious. The elderly may lose their retirement savings and no longer be able to support themselves.
Financial abuse affects the elderly psychologically. This is because they will feel betrayed and start to lose faith in people around them. They feel both ashamed and guilty for being a victim. In the case of being exploited, if the perpetrator is someone close to them—a family member—they feel torn between reporting it and keeping it to themselves. If they were to report the case, their loved ones will be punished and, at the same time, they may be accused of exposing the family inappropriately (aib). If they do not report it, they will forever be taken advantage of.
To prevent the elderly from scammers, children need to make them aware of the tactics and strategies used by the scammers. Our elderly parents may not like it when we preach them about such matters, so we may need to use other ways of getting them to understand the situation. Perhaps, by sending them news or links regarding the issue via Whatsapp and let them read it in their own sweet time would be a better alternative.
In order to prevent the elderly from being financially exploited by their loved ones, there needs to be an understanding among the children that there should be a check and balance in managing the parents’ finances. Usually, the elderly parents will put their trust in their favourite child to withdraw money from the ATM machine. In order to put the check and balance, another child will be identified whose job is to keep an eye on the parents’ account to ensure that the favourite child only takes the amount that is needed by the parents. In this regard, Islam emphasises trust. Children who are given such a trust need to perform their duties accordingly. Failing to do so would only be making them steal from their own parents.