An NIA-funded study, designed to emulate an authentic government imposter scam, has revealed that the susceptibility of older adults to fraudulent schemes may be greater than previously estimated. Even those showing no signs of cognitive impairment are not immune to such deceptive practices. These concerning findings were documented in a paper presented in JAMA Network Open.
Historically, analyses of the susceptibility of seniors to monetary deceptions relied heavily on self-reported information. Aiming for a more accurate gauge of behavior under scam scenarios, researchers from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, in partnership with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation, orchestrated a real-life imposter scam simulation. The study involved 644 older adults, average age 85, from the Rush Memory and Aging Project. These individuals were contacted by a non-existent governmental body about fictive irregularities linked to their Social Security and Medicare accounts necessitating verification.
The responses of these participants were categorized into three distinct groups: those who did not engage (either ignoring the phone call or refraining from returning it), those who displayed engagement (took or returned the call but voiced doubt and refrained from disclosing personal data), and those who exhibited conversion behavior (responded or called back without hesitation or divulged personal information). The majority of participants chose not to engage with the call (68.5%). Intriguingly, amongst those who did respond or call back, a higher proportion did so without skepticism (16.4%) compared to those who were doubtful (15.1%), and alarmingly, 12% were even willing to share personal information.
In their analytical probe, the researchers scrutinized the disparities in cognitive abilities, financial knowledge, and awareness of scams among the varied response groups. They unveiled that older adults who engaged with the call but maintained skepticism outperformed others, showcasing the highest cognitive function and financial literacy, with notably fewer individuals having dementia within this cohort.
Conversely, those classified in the conversion group exhibited the weakest scam awareness. Intriguingly, when data from participants with dementia were eliminated, the differences in cognition and financial literacy ceased to be significant – yet scam awareness remained markedly lower in the conversion group.
However, the breadth of application of these results to the broader population of aging individuals may be narrow, given that the majority of participants were white, female, and well-educated. Considering the heightened educational background of the subjects and the less aggressive tactics employed compared to actual fraudulent schemes, it is probable that conversion rates could be higher in genuine circumstances. Strategies to amplify scam awareness and delve deeper into the attributes linked to susceptibility could be instrumental in mitigating the incidence of fraud amongst older adults.