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RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES

In 2021, Americans age 80 and older reported median fraud losses of $1,300 per incident, substantially higher than younger age groups (Federal Trade Commission, 2022). Using data from the Federal Trade Commission’s Sentinel Fraud Complaint Database and the Area Deprivation Index, this study assesses...

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Autores principales: DeLiema, Marguerite, Witt, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9770106/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac059.1600
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author DeLiema, Marguerite
Witt, Paul
author_facet DeLiema, Marguerite
Witt, Paul
author_sort DeLiema, Marguerite
collection PubMed
description In 2021, Americans age 80 and older reported median fraud losses of $1,300 per incident, substantially higher than younger age groups (Federal Trade Commission, 2022). Using data from the Federal Trade Commission’s Sentinel Fraud Complaint Database and the Area Deprivation Index, this study assesses the demographic and contextual correlates of consumer fraud victimization in the United States. Models show a positive association between living in a disadvantaged community and reporting victimization (versus reporting no losses after being targeted). Black and Hispanic consumers are significantly more likely report victimization, although non-Hispanic White victims report higher average fraud losses. Results also show that older adults are significantly less likely to report fraud victimization relative to people age 30 and younger, but older victims lose hundreds of dollars more, on average. Applying a sentiment analysis to the consumer complaint narratives, we find that compared to emotionally neutral complaints, emotionally positive and emotionally negative complaints are positively associated with reporting victimization versus reporting no losses. Gift cards are the most common method of payment demanded by fraud criminals overall, but victims who pay using cash, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency lose significantly more money, on average. To limit the impact of fraud on the aging population, consumer protection agencies need to focus their efforts on educating older adults and members of socially and economically disadvantaged communities about scams, as well as enforce greater controls on cryptocurrency exchanges and retail gift card sales.
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spelling pubmed-97701062022-12-22 RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES DeLiema, Marguerite Witt, Paul Innov Aging Abstracts In 2021, Americans age 80 and older reported median fraud losses of $1,300 per incident, substantially higher than younger age groups (Federal Trade Commission, 2022). Using data from the Federal Trade Commission’s Sentinel Fraud Complaint Database and the Area Deprivation Index, this study assesses the demographic and contextual correlates of consumer fraud victimization in the United States. Models show a positive association between living in a disadvantaged community and reporting victimization (versus reporting no losses after being targeted). Black and Hispanic consumers are significantly more likely report victimization, although non-Hispanic White victims report higher average fraud losses. Results also show that older adults are significantly less likely to report fraud victimization relative to people age 30 and younger, but older victims lose hundreds of dollars more, on average. Applying a sentiment analysis to the consumer complaint narratives, we find that compared to emotionally neutral complaints, emotionally positive and emotionally negative complaints are positively associated with reporting victimization versus reporting no losses. Gift cards are the most common method of payment demanded by fraud criminals overall, but victims who pay using cash, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency lose significantly more money, on average. To limit the impact of fraud on the aging population, consumer protection agencies need to focus their efforts on educating older adults and members of socially and economically disadvantaged communities about scams, as well as enforce greater controls on cryptocurrency exchanges and retail gift card sales. Oxford University Press 2022-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9770106/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac059.1600 Text en © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Abstracts
DeLiema, Marguerite
Witt, Paul
RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES
title RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES
title_full RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES
title_fullStr RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES
title_full_unstemmed RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES
title_short RISK FACTORS AND IMPACT OF FINANCIAL FRAUD ON OLDER ADULTS AND DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES
title_sort risk factors and impact of financial fraud on older adults and disadvantaged communities
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9770106/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac059.1600
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