The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 22 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Is Psychological Vulnerability Related to the Experience of Fraud in Older Adults?
Open accessAbstract
Financial exploitation, and particularly thefts and scams, are increasing at an alarming rate. In this study we (a) determined the national prevalence of older adults who report having been a victim of fraud, (b) created a population-based model for the prediction of fraud, and (c) examined how fraud is experienced by the most psychologically vulnerable older adults. The older adults studied were 4,400 participants in a Health and Retirement Study substudy, the 2008 Leave Behind Questionnaire. The prevalence of fraud across the previous 5 years was 4.5%. Among measures collected in 2002, age, education, and depression were significant predictors of fraud. Financial satisfaction and social-needs fulfillment were measured in 2008 and were significantly related to fraud above and beyond the 2002 predictors. Using depression and social-needs fulfillment to determine the most psychologically vulnerable older adults, we found that fraud prevalence was three times higher (14%) among those with the highest depression and the lowest social-needs fulfillment than among the rest of the sample (4.1%; χ2 = 20.49; p < .001). Clinical gerontologists and other professionals in the field need to be aware of their psychologically vulnerable clients' heightened exposure to financial fraud.
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Cited by
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Items 101–145 of 145
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Perceived Financial Vulnerability, Wealth, and Wealth Change: The Health and Retirement Study
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“…social factors such as increased loneliness and lower perceived social support have also been associated with FE or FE risk (Beach et al., 2018; Bensimon et al., 2024; James et al., 2014; Lichtenberg et al., 2013; Lim et al., 2023; Liu et al., 2017; Wen et al., 2022; Xing et al., 2020).”
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Lee, S., & Augusto, D. (2021) · Crime Prevention & Community Safety · doi:10.1057/s41300-021-00136-8 · Cited by 3
Does Retirement Increase Fraud Exposure and Fraud Victimization? Evidence From China
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Reduced community-level social cohesion is associated with higher risk for financial exploitation
Tropea, T., Yang, Y., Ludwig, R. M., Fareri, D. S., Mennis, J. L., & Smith, D. V. (2025) · Aging & Mental Health · doi:10.1080/13607863.2025.2533493 · Cited by 2
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“…factors influencing fraud victimization among older adults (Button et al., 2014; DeLiema et al., 2023; Gavett et al., 2017; Koning et al., 2024; Lichtenberg et al., 2013; Shang et al., 2022), there remains a significant gap in understanding the multifaceted nature of older adults’…”
Du, X., Liang, J., & Chen, X. (2025) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-025-04855-3 · Cited by 1
“What ’ s more, in conjunction with potential victims being unaccompanied, fraudsters may provide them with emotional companionship or emotional accompaniment (Acierno et al. 2010; Lichtenberg et al. 2013).”
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“…states such as emotional trauma (Whitty, 2013 ), loneliness (Cross, 2016; DeLiema, 2018 ), dissatisfaction (Kadoya et al., 2020 ), and depression (Lichtenberg et al., 2013, 2016 ) have been linked to heightened susceptibility, as individuals experiencing such conditions may be more easily…”
Peleg, S., & Weissberger, G. H. (2026) · Journal of Applied Gerontology · doi:10.1177/07334648251411576 · Cited by 1
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InfluentialMultilevel risk factors for financial fraud in later life: evidence from China
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Weissberger, G. H., & Bergman, Y. S. (2025) · Aging & Mental Health · doi:10.1080/13607863.2025.2532665 · Cited by 1
“While we interpret our findings as suggesting that FE experiences increase anxiety and depressive symptoms, it is possible, and it has been shown in the literature (e.g. Lichtenberg et al., 2013, 2016), that poor mental health also leads to increased risk of FE.”
Competency and Capacity in the Aging Adult
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Does Fixed Income Buffer against Fraud Shocks?
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The Costs of Financial Fraud VictimizationPreprint
Hamdi, N., Kalda, A., & Sovich, D. (2024) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4787119
“Lichtenberg et al. (2013) examine the national prevalence of older adults who report having been victims of fraud, created a population-based model for predicting fraud, and investigated how fraud is experienced by the most psychologically vulnerable older adults.”
BackgroundAssessing Scam Victimization Risk Factors among Retired Adults
Corpuz, R. R. N., Minaves, R. V., Jesus, A. M. D., Guevarra, P. Y. G., & Pineda, J. L. L. (2025) · doi:10.38124/ijisrt/25jan261
Preventive counselling against online fraud: Does this work?
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“…the elderly, Reiboldt & Vogel (2001) attempted to extract victim characteristics of middle-aged and elderly victims of telemarketing fraud, and Lichtenberg et al (2013) found that depression in the elderly may affect fraud victimisation and argued that psychological and social support may…”
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Koehn, D. (2026) · Issues in business ethics · doi:10.1007/978-3-032-15084-4_14
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lichtenberg, P. A., Stickney, L., & Paulson, D.
- Affiliations
- Wayne State University (US)
- Illinois Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lichtenberg, Peter A.
- Venue
- Clinical Gerontologist
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-02-28
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 132-146
- ISSN
- 0731-7115 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2301
- PMC
- PMC3755896
- OpenAlex
- W2061349246
- Cited by
- 146
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 11.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Clinical Gerontologist (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (T32AG000275)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Geriatrics and Gerontology › Elder Abuse and Neglect
- Social Sciences › Law › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Social Sciences › Life-span and Life-course Studies › Aging, Elder Care, and Social Issues
- Keywords
- fraud victimization, older adults, economic violence, psychological vulnerability, depression, financial satisfaction, fraud risk prediction, scams
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