I may write about elder fraud, but last year, a sweet-talking scammer convinced me that my computer had a virus. He “helpfully” told me I was being scammed when he, was, in fact the scammer! I was mortified that I had taken the bait and kept this sad tale to myself for more than a month.
Since then, someone has tried (unsuccessfully, at least) to take out a credit card in my name twice. Fortunately, the credit card companies notified me. I have taken the drastic step of freezing my credit.
Being a writer, I drowned my sorrows in words. Here’s a piece I did on being scammed for PBS Next Avenue.
It makes sense, then, that I am the moderator of a panel on elder financial fraud put on by the long term care company Benchmark Senior Living and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The panelists are stellar. They are:
- Philip Marshall, famous for blowing the whistle on his father, who was stealing from his mother (Philip’s grandmother), well-known New York philanthropist Brooke Astor.
- Liz Loewy, an attorney and former chief of the Elder Abuse unit for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office which brought a criminal complaint against Philip’s father. She is now cofounder of the tech company EverSafe that helps people safeguard their financial information.
- Andrea Teichman, an attorney whose father’s caretaker stole $85,000. Ironic: He had been named “Caregiver of the Year” by his employment agency.
- John Hibbs, the senior managing director on Bank of America’s information security team. I did not realize BOA spends nearly $1 billion a year on financial security.
Looking forward to the discussion!
