A young student from Omaha, Parker Cosimano, took action to help prevent older adults from falling victim to scams after his own grandmother was scammed. He created a flyer to raise awareness about common scams and began distributing them on foot at senior centers in Nebraska. His efforts demonstrate the importance of educating ourselves and our loved ones about the dangers of scams and taking steps to protect ourselves from them.
The poster “A Senior’s Guide to Scam Prevention” created by Cosimano received a significant boost with the help of the Better Business Bureau (BBB). In fact, the BBB went a step further by ensuring that the guide was distributed to every senior center in Nebraska. Now, the BBB is eager to extend this initiative to Kansas by making sure that every senior in the Sunflower State has access to the guide.
According to Josh Planos, the Communications Director with the BBB, the main goal was to simplify the reporting process for individuals. The QR code located at the bottom of the flyer was implemented to achieve this objective by making it effortless for people to report their experience.
According to the BBB, senior citizens are targeted by scammers, who make billions of dollars annually from these fraudulent activities.
According to the 2023 Risk Report for Older Adults from BBB Scam Tracker, there are various scams targeting older adults.
-
- People ages 65+ reported a higher median dollar loss ($109) than the overall median dollar loss, but they reported a lower susceptibility (percentage of those who reported losing money when targeted by a scam) than consumers overall.
- A higher percentage of people over the age of 65 reported being targeted via social media in 2023 than the year before. This age group was more likely to report losing money than other age groups when contacted by phone or via online classifieds.
- Individuals 65+ were more likely to report paying scammers via credit card, prepaid/gift card, and check than other age groups.
Read More: Montgomery non-profit founder convicted for stealing $2M from federal COVID relief initiatives
