Financial Fraud on Elders and Interventions

Are there effective interventions that exist to identify elders who are victimized by financial abuse? Elders are living longer and control about 70% of the nation’s wealth, thus making the potential for fraud greater (Reeves & Wysong, 2010, p. 328). The Fraud Research Center defines fraud as, “a misrepresentation or concealment of some fact relevant to a transaction of products or services with the intent to deceive for monetary gain” (Beals, 2014, p. 4). A systematic literature review was conducted for current social service programs and methods for evaluating financial abuse or deterring elders from being defrauded including articles, gray literature, peer-reviewed literature, and dissertations. The limited number of articles found on this research topic supported the need for social workers to have knowledge and interventions to evaluate cases of financial abuse of elders and highlighted the need for greater research and evaluation of existing programs on this topic.