Elderly Targeted by Identity Theft - Free Essay Example

Introduction

Identity theft is one of the rapidly increasing crimes in America today, which allows the intentional use of someone's identity as a technique to attain a financial advantage over others. One such type is preying on the elderly by employing or stealing their financial or personal information, thus creating a climate of fear among them.

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Identity Theft Crime

An identity theft crime is so prevalent among the elderly. Several factors are associated with this high rate of prevalence. Firstly, the elderly are thought of as easy prey than other age groups. The process of decision-making required to prevent fraud activities actively needs complex and high cognitive functions, which decreases at an older age (Burnes et al., 2017). As a result, the elderly have poor financial decision-making and reduced literacy on financial matters, hence increasing their susceptibility to fraud and scams. Secondly, the minds of the elderly think slower, and they are easily influenced. Research shows that as one gets older, the body and the brain start slowing down, meaning that an individual can occasionally lose things, forget, and be influenced easily ("A Well-Aged Mind," 2019). The ongoing changes pose the elderly to the risk of identity theft. Thirdly, the elderly do not closely monitor their credit or finances. According to Holtfreter (2014), more significant monetary losses are associated with reporting the victim. The elderly give all their financial information to fraudsters unknowingly through phony prize scams and contribution to phony charities. So the elderly should be made aware of fraud victimization and the programs designed to help them cope and prevent criminal victimization. This research paper will discuss why it is easier to take advantage of the elderly, the case of identity theft, and the economic effects of crime. The paper will go ahead to discuss the argumentative perspective of identity theft and conclude by summarizing the main points in the work.

Why It Is Easier to Take Advantage of the Elderly

The elderly are often the most attractive targets for identity theft because they tend to trust others. Individuals who grew up in the 1930s to 1950s were raised to be trusting and polite (Cullina, n.d). Therefore, fraudsters exploit these traits because they know that they do not reject requests or hang up the telephone.

They are easier to use or scam them. The brain changes that take place in the elderly make them vulnerable to financial exploitation. The changes decline their ability to detect fraud situations where some older adults may be inclined to believe the last person they talked to, and others may lose their ability to cope with high-pressure predators. As a result, they become easy to trick into giving personal information in response to an email or phone call.

The elderly population is increasing, and so the financial exploitation of the elderly is also proliferating. When living alone, some need to please others to avoid being lonely, resulting in elderly maltreatment, including neglect by others, physical abuse, and advanced financial exploitation (Jackson & Hafemeister, 2011). For example, women living alone are at higher risk of phone scams, where the fraudsters communicate with the victims through the phone.

Prey Upon the Elderly Finances

They have accumulated a lot of resources, making them wealthier than the generation before them. Identity thieves steal the elderly’s mail or even impersonate government officials such as the Internal Revenue Service agents to get the personal information of the elderly (Holtfreter et al., 2014). The ultimate goal of identity fraudsters is to obtain the Social Security number of the victim, add it to personal information such as an address, full name, date of birth, and so on, and steal a person's identity. All this information is enough to get all the wealth of the elderly.

The elderly tend to have more equity in their homes than younger people, and because of that, they become the frequent target for identity theft. They also are not online-savvy and cannot detect signs of fraud right away (Cullina, n.d). Besides, the elderly may have properties in real estate investment, vacation homes, or even second homes to which they may not pay much attention compared to their primary residence property. So they also tend to miss the bills or notices such as past-due notices or property tax bills, thus giving the fraudsters more time to conduct fraudulent activity. Therefore, the elderly will not learn about the crime until it is fully committed.

Most older people own their own cars, have pension plans, stocks, and bonds. The elderly will likely hold their assets in mutual funds, stocks, and retirement accounts rather than holding their assets in savings accounts and banks (Blyskal, 2018). Identity thieves who steal brokerage investments, retirement savings, stocks and bonds, mutual fund assets, personal cars, and pension plans will not likely target the elderly. Nonetheless, the elderly should be advised to check their account balances regularly and immediately report any unauthorized activity.

Physical and Emotional Impact

The elderly may feel a sense of helplessness or depression once they experience identity theft. Besides severe financial effects, the crime also results in anger, frustration, and even more severe symptoms like depression (Momchilovich, 2017). Additionally, the elderly may experience an increase in physical disabilities. For instance, research has shown the tendency to develop antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders following an identity theft (Wallang & Taylor, 2012). Antisocial personality is characterized by a lack of empathy, risk-seeking behavior, and coolness under pressure. At the same time, the narcissistic disorder is manifested in an attacking style that is overt interpersonal and a grandiose sense of self. They may also experience premature death. Additional costs that result from identity theft are likely to distract the mind of the elderly and increase the risk of committing suicide (Lugo et al., 2018). The fear and hostility they get from identity theft may also cause chronic diseases like heart attacks that may lead to the elderly's premature death.

Economic Effects of Crime

Several economic effects are associated with identity theft among the elderly. Firstly, there is a loss or damage to property. The elders' transfer ownership of their property, such as cars, real estates, or homes to the thief in exchange for other transactions that the older person does not comprehend (Cullina, n.d). The offender may also add his or her name to the elder's bank account under the claim of assisting the elder with his or her financial affairs, and these allow the thief to transfer, deposit, or withdraw funds. Secondly, identity thieves steal information from the elderly for profit. Personal information can be collected through phone scams, where the fraudster pretends to be selling specialized products while awarding free prizes to the elderly (Cullina, n,d). The main goal is to get the elder's financial information and utilize it to conduct the theft for his or her profit.

Thirdly, higher premiums on insurance policies can result from identity theft. For example, a Social Security number can be stolen and used to bill Medicaid or pay an insurance company for services that the victim did not get. This form of identity theft leads to a higher premium for insurance policies (Cullina, n.d). Lastly, the crime causes the direct and indirect cost of violence among the elderly because they have a greater fear of being assaulted or attacked. Identity theft is likely to cause financial or other material maltreatment, resulting in unnecessary injury, suffering, or pain to the elderly.

Conclusion

Furthermore, the fearful state among the elderly causes crime to be so remarkable among the American population. The elderly tend to feel unsafe on the streets of their neighborhoods and highly avoid them, thus restricting the elderly's mobility and how they help others or social capital (Skogan, 1978). They also change their activity patterns due to fear of crime.