Financial fraud among older Americans: Evidence and implications
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: The consequences of poor financial capability at older ages are serious and include making mistakes with credit, spending retirement assets too quickly, and being defrauded by financial predators. Because older persons are at or past the peak of their wealth accumulation, they are often the targets of fraud. METHODS: Our project analyzes a module we developed and fielded on people aged 50 an older years in the 2016 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Using this data set, we evaluated the incidence and prospective risk factors (measured in 2010) for investment fraud and prize/lottery fraud using logistic regression (N = 1,220). RESULTS: Relatively few HRS respondents mentioned any single form of fraud over the prior 5 years, but 5.0% reported at least one form of investment fraud and 4.4% recounted prize/lottery fraud. Greater wealth (nonhousing) was associated with investment fraud, whereas lower housing wealth and symptoms of depression were associated with prize/lottery fraud. Hispanics were significantly less likely to report either type of fraud. Other suspected risk factors-low social integration and financial literacy-were not significant. DISCUSSION: Fraud is a complex phenomenon and no single factor uniquely predicts victimization across different types, even within the category of investment fraud. Prevention programs should educate consumers about various types of fraud and increase awareness among financial services professionals.
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According to research, most scam victims do not have dementia, although cognitive decline may apply.
“According to research, most scam victims do not have dementia (James et al. 2014), although cognitive decline may apply (DeLiema et al. 2020; Shao et al. 2019).”
From “If We Don’t Listen to Them, We Make Them Lose More than Money:” Exploring Reasons for Underreporting and the Needs of Older Scam Victims (2023) · cites this paper as DeLiema et al. 2020
The Discussion (page unavailable) mentions an assumption that cognitive impairment may increase older adults’ susceptibility to fraud, which supports the cautious possibility attributed to this paper. But the Results (page unavailable) show no significant association between cognition score and the fraud outcomes studied; the paper does not establish cognitive decline among victims. The separate claim about most victims not having dementia is attached to James et al. (2014), not this source. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDeLiema et al. (2020) find that individuals may be more comfortable speaking about their experiences with someone in person who can establish the credibility of the organization and build rapport versus over the phone, where the caller's identity and intentions are harder to verify.
“DeLiema et al. (2020) find that individuals may be more comfortable speaking about their experiences with someone in person who can establish the credibility of the organization and build rapport versus over the phone, where the caller's identity and intentions are harder to verify.”
From “If We Don’t Listen to Them, We Make Them Lose More than Money:” Exploring Reasons for Underreporting and the Needs of Older Scam Victims (2023) · cites this paper as DeLiema et al. 2020
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“Aside from depression, we did not replicate prior findings that used the single item in the Leave-Behind questionnaires to predict fraud victimization (DeLiema, 2017; Lichtenberg et al. 2013; 2016).”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Profiling Victims of Investment Fraud: Mindsets and Risky Behaviors
Deliema, M., Shadel, D., & Pak, K. (2020) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1093/jcr/ucz020 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
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“Several studies highlight the nature and risk factors of being scammed online (for example, DeLiema et al. 2020; Van Wilsem 2013; Wood and Lichtenberg 2017; Parti 2022); however, there are very few studies that address the causes of the underreporting of these crimes (National Statistics UK 2019).”
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Fear of fraud amongst older adults: a hidden epidemic?
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- Authors
- DeLiema, M., Deevy, M., Lusardi, A., & Mitchell, O. S.
- Affiliations
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- George Washington University (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Corresponding author
- DeLiema, Marguerite
- Venue
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2018-12-17
- Volume
- 75
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 861-868
- ISSN
- 1079-5014 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5368
- PMC
- PMC7328021
- OpenAlex
- W2884346576
- Cited by
- 132
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 15.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ScholarlyCommons (University of Pennsylvania) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- University of Michigan Retirement Research Center (RRC08098401)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Accounting › Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis
- Social Sciences › Demography › Elder Abuse and Neglect
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Keywords
- financial fraud, older adults, investment fraud, fraud victimization, risk factors, financial capability, wealth, housing wealth, depression, Hispanic older adults, financial literacy, fraud prevention
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Elder Abuse, Female, Fraud, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Retirement, United States, Crime Victims, Needs Assessment, Law Enforcement, Vulnerable Populations
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