Word: conning
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...former real estate saleswoman, widow of a judge and mother of a prosecutor, Mary Ann Downs had far more financial and legal acumen than most aging fraud victims. Even so, con artists had little trouble scamming her out of $74,000. Why? How? Her story is a classic study in what makes fraud against elderly people, especially women, one of the biggest growth industries in America. Con men are bilking the elderly out of $40 billion a year, by one FBI estimate...
Downs sent a $200 check for a shipment of cosmetics. Instead of the prize, she began getting calls from other telemarketing firms--one in Utah, one in Louisiana and four more in Las Vegas. The firms belonged to a new breed of con artist, those who regularly buy and sell names for their mooch lists, at prices ranging from $10 for an untested "lead" to $200 for the name of someone who has fallen for a whole series of scams...
Several characteristics make seniors today especially vulnerable. They usually have some money from Social Security and employer pensions, IRA or 401(k) savings, and, if they are widows, the proceeds of their late husband's life insurance. (Con artists avidly read obituary pages to spot new widows' names.) But the seniors know that they are likely to live much longer than their predecessors--maybe long enough to use up their nest egg. And many are fiercely determined never to become a burden to their kids. Sadly, that combination makes them easy prey for phony investment schemes...
Seniors today are undermined by admirable traits. Says Bruce Gebhardt, who heads the FBI office in Phoenix, Ariz.: "They grew up in a more polite age, and they can't hang up the phone." Or slam a door in a con artist's face. Many are trusting to a fault: they cannot believe that well-dressed, well-spoken, solicitous young men can be ripping them...
CHICAGO: Once he was a congressman, now he's a con ? but today he came a little closer to freedom. Former House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski entered a new kind of House yesterday ? a halfway house...