Posted: Thursday, 16 May 2024 @ 15:04
In order to have an uderstanding of elderly fraud, it is necessary to fully recognise the (simple)
strategy of committing the act(s).
Once you understand the primary
way that most fraudsters/false friends commit elderly fraud you can develop your
own strategies to minimise the risk of this happening.
In fact, there is actually a
fairly simple strategy for committing elderly fraud as we do see it often with
our work.
It consists of a Fraudster/False
Friend doing the following:
- Exercising strong influence on a
vulnerable person – manoeuvring the vulnerable person to give sole control (or
effective control) of his or her assets to that bad person. This can be getting control of that
person’s financial affairs and if a Lasting Power of Attorney(LPA) is done, becoming
a sole attorney.
- It can also involve becoming
sole effective sole executor of the vulnerable person’s Will. It is more difficult to challenge a will
executed by a solicitor and despite safeguards this is relatively easy to do.
Ironically the legal profession can be a very useful tool to enable a transfer
of assets to manifest to a predator.
- Being both very self-serving and
also, patient. Typically, other relatives (would be beneficiaries)
under-estimate the lengths that the false friend will go to get what he or she
wants. This puts the false friend at a fundamental advantage as they use any
card possible to achieve their objectives.
- The false friend possesses good
knowledge of the law. They know there are inherent weaknesses with the legal
process which can be exploited. For
example, it is difficult for other family members to challenge a Will prepared
by solicitors. The individual knows that the Office of the Public Guardian(OPG,
a possible safeguard) and indeed the police will be unlikely to intervene. The OPG is not that effective in tackling elderly fraud as
it is has a low successful enforcement rate.