Everyone deals with pesky telemarketers trying to sell you something, getting you to buy a subscription, saying you’ve won a free trip and more, but the senior population is more vulnerable to these scams.
According to Statistics Canada, an anti-fraud call centre named PhoneBusters reported that between 1993 and 2001, seniors aged 60 or older accounted for 84% of dollar losses through false lottery or prize winnings. In 2003, the U.S National Fraud Information Center reported that 34% of telemarketing victims were people aged 60 or older.
The most common reasons that seniors fall prey to telemarketing scams are because they are a population with substantial savings or assets, they are more trusting to strangers and have difficulty deciphering if a phone call is a scam or not, and they are often at home alone with little or no close contact to family members to assist in determining scam phone calls.
Fortunately, there is a resource called the SeniorBusters Canada program to increase awareness of scams and fraud that are exploiting elders financially. The SeniorBusters program utilizes the PhoneBusters website as a resource for the top scams and telemarketers that target seniors. Some of these telemarketers include:
Cheque Overpayment Fraud
Emergency Scam
False Charities
Identity Theft
Inheritance
Internet 101
Job
Lottery Emails
Office Supplies / Directory
Phishing
Phone Number Spoofing
Prize Pitch
Pyramid Schemes
Recovery Pitch
Service Scam
Travel
Vacation
Vehicle Warranty Package
To learn more about the SeniorBusters Canada Program, visit their website here: http://www.programsforelderly.com/abuse-seniorbusters-canada.php
To view the list of telemarketing scams, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website here: http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/fraud-escroquerie/telemarketing-eng.htm
If you, or someone you know has been a victim of a scam, call the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre’s toll free number 1-888-495-8501