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Home Opinion Opinion: Protecting Seniors from Schemes and Scams
Opinion: Protecting Seniors from Schemes and Scams
An elder from Somaliland in Minneapolis. Photo: Issa Mansaray/The AfricaPaper
By Deb Taylor | The AfricaPaper
Deb Taylor is CEO of Senior Community Services
Dwight, 74, is more cautious now after being stung by a classified advertisement he saw in an online magazine. The ad promised $100 in legal currency for $50. Dwight (naively) felt it was a good deal so he dashed off a check for $50 and mailed it to a post office box in Colorado. Soon, an official looking envelope arrived and Dwight tore it open to find several bills. He was ecstatic, until he took a closer look. He'd received Portuguese escudo notes. Unsure what to do with this foreign currency, Dwight took the cash to the foreign currency section at a downtown bank. A teller told Dwight that, yes, this is $100 in legal Portuguese currency, but based upon the exchange rate his $50 had purchased 62 cents worth of foreign currency. Dwight's dream deal had turned into a nightmare.
Many too-good-to-be true schemes arrive via the Internet and telephone, and trusting seniors are often easy targets. They grew up in an era when people were more trusting and could take someone at their word.
But criminals are creative and know how to manipulate older adults. They may call pretending to be a government representative, accusing the senior of failing to show up for jury duty, or reporting there's a warrant out for their arrest. Out of fear, the senior may relinquish their social security number and other private information. Then, the scammer has information to create a false identity for profit.
Consumers in all fifty states have received phone calls from criminals purporting to be IRS agents. They charge the senior has unpaid back taxes which, if not paid, will result in arrest, a lawsuit, or suspension of their driver's license.
That's why it's important for seniors to file a tax return annually, even if their earnings are under the income limit for filing. In 2013, the IRS sent out almost three million fraudulent refunds to con artists who had filed returns in the names of unwitting consumers. If you file a return, it's easier for the IRS to discover fraudulent returns filed under the same name.
Unsavory
It's important to protect confidential information. Trusting seniors may have private information readily available and ripe for the picking by unsavory service workers.
The theft of sensitive information can be the start of a troubling and frustrating case of identity theft.
With so much shopping being done online, it's vital for family and caregivers to help track purchases and payments made by seniors. If some credit card payments are suspect, call the credit card company to report the fraudulent charge and have it removed from the bill. Be sure to ask for a replacement credit card with a new number.
The obituary scam is especially shameful. Con artists scour newspapers online and call family members demanding money for a supposed debt that the deceased left behind. Another version targets widows who answer the doorbell to find a fake delivery person holding a box supposedly ordered by the deceased. The widow pays and receives the package, and upon opening discovers a brick or equally useless old magazines and newspapers.
Be watchful and ready to help if seniors you know are targeted. Talk with them about how they may become easy prey. It's a good way to Reimagine Aging and save the billions of dollars lost annually to fraud.
The AfricaPaper: Deb Taylor is CEO of Senior Community Services (www.seniorcommunity.org) and its Reimagine Aging Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for older adults and helps seniors and caregivers maintain their independence through free or low-cost services.
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» Research and Review
How to Cite a Government Document
Four Methods:
Proper citations in academic writing will add clarity and consistency to your work. The steps below will teach you how to cite government documents in three of the more common formats. List each "sentence" or "segment" of a citation in the order that appears in the steps, and follow each segment with a period.
Indicate the agency, office, committee or department that issued the document in the first sentence of your citation. Follow this with a period and include any subdivisions of the organization.
The first item in this section should be the highest level of the agency that issued the document. As such, it will often be the name of the national government (e.g. United States).
Do not list personal authors in this segment of the citation.
Indicate the year of publication in parentheses as the next sentence of the citation.
Write the full title of the document in italics after the year.
Capitalize only proper nouns and the first word of the sentence.
Indicate personal authors of the document after the title, if any are credited (e.g. "Operating hours of public libraries in the tri-city area, by John Smith"). The author's name should not be italicized.
Cite the place of publication, followed by a colon, and then the publisher. Most U.S. documents are published by the Government Printing Office.
Abbreviate state names, for example, "Camden, NJ," or "Lubbock, TX."
Refer to the United States' capital as Washington, DC, without periods in the abbreviation.
End the citation by indicating a report number or other identifying number in parentheses, when such a number is available.
The first line of text in a citation should be aligned to the left of the page, and each line under that should be indented.
Indicate the author of the document, listing the surname first, followed by a comma, and then the first name and middle initial (if applicable). If an author is not credited, list the national government (e.g. United States).
List the agency that serves as the organizational author of the text as the next sentence in the citation. Include any subdivisions of the agency.
Cite the title of the document in italics. Capitalize the title as you would a book title.
Include the number of Congress when citing congressional documents (e.g. 110th Cong.). Congress is abbreviated as "Cong."
Indicate the state in which the document was published, followed by a colon and then the publisher.
Most U.S. documents are published by the Government Printing Office, which MLA abbreviates as GPO. Follow this with a comma, and then list the year of publication.
Indicate the medium of the publication as the final sentence of the citation. If it is a printed publication, simply write, "Print."
List the government division as the first sentence of the citation, followed by a comma.
Cite the title of the document in italics next, and capitalize it as you would capitalize a book title.
Indicate the state in which the document was published, followed by a colon, then the publisher, which is followed by the year of publication. Put this segment in parentheses and end with a comma.
Add the specific page that relates to the information after the parentheses.
List the government division as the first sentence of the citation.
Indicate the subdivision or agency as the next sentence.
Next include the title of the document in italics, and capitalize it as you would a book title. If there is a personal author for the document, follow the title with a comma and list the author, (e.g. "by John Smith") but do not italicize the name of the author.
Indicate a report number or other identifying number if one is available.
Cite the publisher as the next segment.
End the citation with the state in which the document was published, followed by a comma, and then the year of publication.
http://library.wlu.edu/research/ref/cite_apa_govt.asp
http://www.library.unt.edu/govinfo/browse-topics/citation-guides-and-style-manuals/general-guidelines
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/
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