Retirees, their families, and federal agents give first-hand accounts of the devastating rise of elder fraud in America to the FBI.
Correspondent David Spunt reports the latest from the Justice Department.
"Elder fraud is simply financial fraud that targets any individual, any citizen in the United States over the age of 60 years old," FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigation Division Aaron Tapp told Fox News."… It could be romance based. It could be technology based. But any type of fraud scheme that’s targeting our elderly population."
"I think, you know, just being lonely, he turned to the internet and started looking around on dating sites and, you know, built a relationship with this person, Mary, online," Kennard told Fox News. "Over time, she started asking him for money, and it started in small increments and then eventually, you know, worked its way up to … $40,000 at a time," Kennard said."From what I can add up and find in terms of receipts and notes and statements, it looks like [he sent] about $750,000." Kennard said the relationship her father had with Mary occurred entirely over text messages and emails, they never once spoke on the phone. Right away, she was concerned he was being scammed.
"We identified at least $22 million worth of money that flowed through all the financial accounts that we looked at," Special Supervisory Agent Keith Custer told Fox News."So, hundreds of victims, hundreds of bank accounts and well over $20 million in losses." Babtunde Popoola at a bank teller window. Popoola was one of the scammers prosecuted for his role in defrauding Donald Griffith and others.
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