Articles Posted in Mortgage and Financial Fraud

When people learn that our team serves as a law firm for elder abuse victims in San Francisco and throughout Northern California, and when they learn how incredibly common the problem is, they often ask how they can help. These people often express concern about their ability to identify elder abuse. This is an understandable concern. Like other forms of abuse, mistreatment of seniors is often hidden. Victims may be unwilling to report the problem due to fear of retribution or unable to report abuse due to physical and/or mental infirmities.

We want to provide an overview of several forms of elder abuse in order to help our concerned community members identify the problem. In order to do so, we consulted a guide provided to a specific group on individuals who are required to report elder abuse by California law. The guide, titled Reporting Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse, is given staff members at a range of California elder care facilities. It breaks elder abuse into the following categories to help these mandated reporters understand the issue:

• Physical abuse – This includes physical assault, unreasonable restraints, misuse of medications, and sexual abuse. Indicators of abuse can include bruises, broken bones, fractures, bloody/soiled clothing, appearing excessively drugged, and exhibiting intense fear. These signs do not always mean abuse exists and physical abuse can also exist where these signs are absent.

Our San Francisco and Oakland elder abuse law firm has been working for years to raise public awareness of the problem of elder abuse. We are proud of this work and believe it is essential to preventing and addressing the mistreatment of our seniors, but we know our voice is not enough on its own. Often, campaigns for socio-political change need to have a big name celebrity who helps draw the fame-crazed public’s attention to a serious and important matter. In March 2011, Mickey Rooney took on this role, talking about his first-hand experience as a victim of elder abuse. This bravery helped move the fight against the abuse of seniors ahead, but there is still much that needs to be done.

Actor Mickey Rooney Tells His Story in 2011 U.S. Senate Hearing

CNN covered Rooney’s testimony, given at age 90 before the Senate Special Committee on Aging. According to the actor, a member of his family took control of his life. Rooney said the abuse left him “scared, disappointed, yes, and angry,” noting that no one ever expects to become a victim of elder abuse. He spoke of suffering the abuse in silent, fearing the problems it might create in the family. In addition to the initial difficulty in mustering the courage to speak up, he said he was told to be quiet when he did voice his concerns. Eventually, however, Rooney did get help and he filed a restraining order against two step-children, claiming financial and emotional abuse.

Consumer Reports, known for investigations aimed at protecting our finances, recently turned its attention to the epidemic of financial elder abuse. The article opened with the story of philanthropist Brooke Astor whose son teamed with a family attorney to amend the will to favor the son, picked paintings off her walls while she lay in adjoining rooms, and stole millions without Astor’s consent. In another portrait, a 72 year old woman entrusted family members with her finances only to find her daughter and granddaughter drained all her resources before abandoning her at a nursing home. These stories are chilling, but sadly not surprising to Attorney Brod and his team, an experienced and dedicated San Francisco elder abuse law firm.

Financial Elder Abuse: Overview and Statistics

Speaking broadly, financial exploitation of seniors is the improper and/or illegal use of property, funds, or other assets of a person aged 60 years of older. In the recent article, Consumer Reports shifted attention from stranger-based scams, like fake sweepstakes and falsified calls from stranded grandchildren, to claims perpetrated by people the victim trusted such as family, neighbors, and employees. A Ventura County judge called these crimes “the ultimate betrayal,” noting she sees around forty cases involving such abuse each month in courtroom. Financial exploitation is the most reported form of elder abuse with cases running a huge gamut from misappropriation of a Social Security check to draining a senior’s life savings.

When most people hear the term “elder abuse,” they picture bruises, sores, and other physical injuries. These are disturbing images. As a Northern California elder abuse law firm and as members of the San Francisco, Sacramento, and Oakland communities, we are dedicated to helping prevent physical abuse of seniors and seeking justice for victims. We also know that elder abuse goes well beyond physical mistreatment. Financial elder abuse is a growing problem. Seniors and relatives of older community members should be alert for scams targeting older Californians. Our team is prepared to help people identify financial abuse and file civil claims seeking money damages from the perpetrators of these schemes.

Posing as Contractors, Two Men Scheme Two Women in the 90s Out of Thousands of Dollars

Central Coast News Kion 46 is covering an unfolding story of financial abuse targeting two elderly women in Aptos, a small town in Santa Cruz County. According to Bill Atkinson of the Santa Cruz District Attorneys Office, Sonny Costello approached a 92 year-old woman in June 2012 pretending to be a licensed contractor. He tricked the woman into paying $2,000 for unnecessary driveway resurfacing work at her Sunset Way home. Four months later, Steve Costello returned to the same home and demanded more money for the same unneeded project, eventually convincing the confused woman to pay him an additional $1,800. A similar scheme occurred earlier this month when Sonny Costello convinced a 94 year-old woman to pay him $3,100 for roof resurfacing at her Cuesta Drive home. Per investigators, the work was never completed.

All too often in our world money trumps morals. One arena in which this problem is particularly pronounced is the nursing home industry. As a San Francisco elder law attorney, Greg Brod helps victims of nursing home neglect and other mistreatment. These abuses often coexist with Medicare overbilling, a problem discussed in a recent Bloomberg report carried by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Article Ties Overbilling and Profit Motives to Elder Neglect

Bloomberg’s research delved deeper into a November report in which federal health care inspectors concluded the nursing home industry overbills Medicare to the tune of $1.5 billion (yes, with a “b”) annually for treatments patients either don’t need or never actually receive. The further study focused on profit motives, noting that investigators deemed thirty percent of reviewed studied claims from for-profit facilities improper, compared to a significantly smaller (though still too high) twelve percent from non-profit homes. At least six other studies undertaken by government and academic bodies in the past three years reached similar conclusions, finding that the rise in the number of for-profit providers is leading to waste and fraud. Likewise, this profit-driven culture is fueling patient harm.

As a San Francisco elder abuse attorney, Greg Brod knows that mistreatment of older Americans comes in many forms. In addition to representing victims of physical elder abuse, his team also represents clients in an even-less discussed arena – financial abuse of seniors. Financial fraud against seniors is a growing problem and Attorney Brod is dedicated to helping Northern California victims and their families recover in civil court.

Study Finds Older Brains Less Able to Detect Facial Signs of Trustworthiness

Perpetrators of fraud, not surprisingly, seek out the most vulnerable targets. An interesting study recently revealed one of the factors that may make seniors more likely to fall victim to fraud. As discussed in a U.S. News & World Report article, researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles found that older people are less capable of spotting untrustworthy faces. They determined that older adults have lower rates of activity in a portion of the brain called the anterior insula, an area tied to disgust and that helps people identify untrustworthy faces. Shelley Taylor, a researcher and psychology professor, explained this change as a reduced warning signal where the brain fails to send a “Be wary” message like it would in a younger person.