Helping seniors avoid scams ahead of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day

June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, and while leaps in technology and artificial intelligence have enabled higher-quality lifestyles for older adults, the same advancements are increasingly being used to scam them.

There are many forms of elder abuse, but financial abuse is the most common in Canada.

“Make sure you’re having those conversations with people that you care about,” said B.C. Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt.

“Make sure people are aware of what financial abuse is, what elder abuse is, with Elder Abuse Awareness Day coming up.”

Pamela McDonald, director of communications and education with the BC Securities Commission (BCSC), says seniors are often targeted because they have accumulated a lot of wealth. She says advancements in AI have made it particularly difficult to spot fraudsters — who are exploiting this. As well, she says that since much of the fraud occurs online, it is typically outside of the securities regulator’s jurisdiction.

“So we can’t investigate it, prosecute it, and sanction the fraudster like we could if it was happening in our own backyard,” she said.

To help seniors avoid getting scammed over the phone, the BCSC has created some specialty ringtones — called Scamtones — to remind them to be cautious when they receive phone calls.

“Scammers may be calling your grandparents more than you are,” McDonald said.

“Scamtones is meant to spark conversations between seniors and their more tech-savvy relatives about investment fraud in the digital era. These ringtones are a reminder for older adults to pause and think twice about picking up or responding to a suspicious call.”

Anti-fraud messages are featured in a variety of musical genres, with voices singing such lines as “This might be a scammer with a silver tongue” in the style of Johnny Cash and “Scammers, they hit you with jargon and more” in soft jazz.

—With files from Michelle Meiklejohn.