Scams Targeting Elderly Trigger Strategy Huddle Community Help Sought After Recent Incident That Cost Man $11,000

They scan the telephone book, putting check marks next to entries with a “Marjorie” or an “Ethel” or a “Herman.”

They stalk supermarket aisles, looking for people with silver hair.

They cruise neighborhoods in search of the manicured lawns and tidy flower gardens common among retirees.

When they identify their targets - Spokane’s elderly - the scam artists who work out of hotel rooms or cheap apartments call them on the phone and try to talk them out of their life savings.

A dozen or so times a year, they’re successful, authorities said Thursday.

They struck again recently, bilking one elderly resident out of $11,000 and prompting the Spokane Police Department, FBI and local banks to plead with the community to watch out for the area’s old folks.

“The way to prevent this kind of crime is through community awareness,” said Craig Brendan, a fraud detective with the Spokane Police Department.

Local authorities and financial experts met Thursday to discuss the latest scams against the elderly circulating in the area and ways to combat them.

One of the current scams is the so-called “bank examiner” scheme.

The ploy begins when the con artist calls an elderly resident on the telephone and claims to be a detective or a security officer working at the victim’s bank.

The caller says he needs the victim’s help in catching a teller who is stealing from the bank. He asks the victim to withdraw a large sum of cash, which will be used as bait to catch the pilfering teller.

The caller asks the victim to deliver the cash in the parking lot of a busy shopping center, then tells him or her to go home and wait for a call. That call never comes.

Elderly people are especially susceptible to such schemes because they grew up in a more trusting generation, Brendan said.

“They think they’re assisting the community, when in fact they’re becoming a victim,” he said.

Once duped, they often don’t report the crime because they are ashamed, Weber added.

Victims who are too old to work any longer and are living off their savings are financially devastated by the thefts.

“They strike the people who can least afford it,” Weber said.

Brendan recalled a case of an elderly man who lost everything to con artists and had his electricity cut off in the middle of winter.

“We found him curled up in bed under one blanket,” the detective said. “He had no heat, no hot water, nothing.”

Experts said the best way to stop elderly fraud is through prevention.

Older people should always be suspicious when someone solicits money from them over the phone, Brendan said. “Get a call-back number and verify what this person is saying,” he said.

Don’t trust someone who claims over the phone to be working for the police, Brendan added. Police never ask for help over the phone and are always willing to meet with someone and show appropriate identification, he said.

Relatives can help, too, Weber said.

They should question why an elderly relative or friend is withdrawing large sums of money from his or her account, he said, and they should encourage elderly people to come to them with suspicions or problems. “We all need to be cognizant of our parents, our neighbors,” Weber said. “This can happen anywhere at anytime. You just need to be on your toes.”