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Scam Avoided
Betty and William Russell of Falls Township narrowly avoided being scammed out of $5,000 over the phone thanks to Santander Bank Branch Operations Manager Eva Pilla. Prepared to wire funds to a person they thought was their grandson, the Russells visited Sovereign Bank (now Santander Bank) in Yardley, but Pilla stepped in to warn them of a possible scam. Here Betty Russell (right) recalls the initial phone call as Eva Pilla (left) listens to her account.
Posted: Sunday, March 30, 2014 1:15 am | Updated: 10:53 am, Sun Mar 30, 2014.
Snow, freezing rain and harsh winds buffeted the house on River Road in Tinicum. When the power went out, some people flicked on generators to keep the essentials going — heat, hot water. Others drove to the homes of family or friends who had power. Angelina Darago had nowhere to go. The 91-year-old, who has Alzheimer’s, couldn’t even get out of bed to get another blanket. She was soaked in her own urine. There was no one to help her. When police arrived, the temperature inside her house was in the 40s. Darago had been left alone for four days while the woman who was supposed to care for her, Danawa Buchanan, was more than 400 miles away in Maine, according to authorities. They said the caregiver had neglected the woman for more than a year and spent more than $300,000 of Darago’s money (including buying a house) during that time.
Buchanan, who’s now 65, reached a settlement with prosecutors last year in which she avoided charges and forfeited the house she had bought with Darago’s money to Darago. Buchanan has since moved out of state.
“For (Darago), now she is in a nursing home, she’s getting Social Security disability and medical assistance,” said Marc Furber, chief of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Arson and Economic Crimes division. “We wanted to get as much money back as quickly as possible to give her the best standard of living possible.”
The elderly can make easy targets for scams, financial abuse and physical abuse and neglect, according to Furber and assistant district attorney Michelle Laucella, who prosecutes elder abuse.
People become more vulnerable as they get older, and the older people get, the more money they can have. The average net worth of people over 65 is $170,494, more than any other age group, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report.
“If it’s not physical or mental abuse, there’s emotional abuse,” Furber said. “(Abusers) use it as a tool to accomplish their goals … they isolate the victims from family and friends and make them believe they, the abuser, is the only person who cares for them.”
Reports of elder abuse in Bucks County have more than tripled over the last decade.
“In 2000, we were getting 150 reports a year, if that,” said Chuck Danfield, older adult protective services supervisor for Bucks County. “This year, we expect that number to be closer to 480.”
Part of the reason for the increase is that the population of older Americans is growing as baby boomers enter the ranks and people, in general, live longer, Danfield said. He also attributes part of the growth to more awareness of how to report the crime and the fact that it’s now mandatory for employees of home health care agencies to alert authorities to any suspicions of elder abuse.
Using phone scams or exploitative relationships, criminals drained Pennsylvania’s aging population of $2.5 million last year, said Brian Duke, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging. Plus, he said, many seniors are suffering from emotional abuse and the most common form of abuse, neglect.
In 2011-12, Pennsylvania Area Agencies on Aging received 18,454 reports of abuse, up from 18,129 in 2010-11. A few years ago, in 2006-07, the state reported 11,962 cases of abuse.
According to the most recent state data, the three most common types of abuse experienced by older Pennsylvanians are self neglect, 41.7 percent; caregiver neglect, 24.7 percent; and financial abuse, 16.2 percent.
The issue of elder abuse, targeting those 65 and older, continues to draw more attention as the aging population grows. Pennsylvania has 2.8 million older residents — the fourth largest population of older citizens in the country, Duke said. This figure, representing roughly 15 percent of the population of the entire state, continues to grow each day.
But countless elder abuse crimes go unreported, said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who said he’s trying to address the growing problem on the federal level.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to live life where you’re already taking on difficult challenges and to be abused or victimized by someone in society preying on them because their faculties are not what they used to be,” Casey said. “It has to be terribly frustrating to someone’s dignity when it happens.”
Only one in 14 cases of abuse are reported, Casey said, but officials aren’t surprised by that number because older people may be embarrassed about being bilked out of money or even property or ashamed to report other forms of abuse or neglect.
On the state level, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year formed the Elder Law Task Force, which aims to find solutions to problems through court rules, legislation and education. The task force has focused on the qualifications of guardians, guardianship monitoring, elder abuse and power of attorney. Its findings are being finalized, according to Wilmarie Gonzalez, the state’s long-term care ombudsmen.
PHYSICAL ABUSE
On the local level, the Bucks County Area Agency on Aging, local advocacy groups and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office formed the Bucks County Crimes Against Older Adults Task Force several years ago after 83-year-old Alzheimer’s patient William J. Neff Sr. died from five broken ribs and a punctured lung in 2000. He was living at a Lower Makefield assisted-living home at the time.
Three years after his death, caregiver Heidi Tenzer was convicted of murder for stomping Neff to death.
Tenzer was an unusual perpetrator. Dansfield said the typical abuser is an adult male relative who has a drug, alcohol or mental health problem. “Because some perpetrators have some sort of problem, they either give the older adult poor care or are physically abusive to them,” he said.
Stress also can be a factor, Danfield said, as some caregivers lash out physically when they can’t cope with a pressured situation. Relatives or caregivers also may be stealing from the senior citizen.
“We’ll get a report to suggest they are being physically abused or neglected, but then we’ll look into the person’s financial situation,” he said. “We learn that one of the reasons a person is being neglected is that a perpetrator is stealing from them and preventing them from getting a different level of care.”
It’s not always easy for officials to help.
“Sometimes they don’t want our help,” said Danfield, adding that the county can get a court order for involuntary intervention if social workers suspect someone cannot make an informed decision.
The daughter of a Lower Southampton woman noticed bruises on the arms of her 83-year-old mother, who has Alzheimer’s and was a patient at an assisted-living facility. The woman also would flinch when someone went to touch her, Laucella said. A hidden camera the daughter installed in her mom’s room showed two aides had been dragging the woman whenever she had to be moved. The aides were prosecuted.
NEGLECT
When a neighbor called Bucks County’s adult protective services agency after she heard screaming from the house next door, county protective services investigators discovered an elderly man who had been handcuffed to a chair.
“We found he was being routinely handcuffed to a chair to prevent him from wandering throughout the house while family members weren’t there,” Danfield said. The man had trouble controlling his bladder and family members restrained him to prevent accidents in the house, he said.
County social service workers found an adult day care program for him. They linked him with services to help him stay at home — where he insisted on living.
“We got him out of the house to a place that could responsibly care for him during the day, and we made unannounced visits to his home to make sure he was being treated properly, along with providing him with personal assistance with his personal care,” said Danfield, adding that the caregivers did not face criminal charges.
Aside from physical neglect, which includes confinement, isolation and denial of care, some elders experience emotional neglect as a result of isolation. This emotional abuse can take many forms, according to experts, including ignoring the person, habitually blaming the elder, harassment and humiliation, threats and punishment.
Self-neglect may be tougher to spot and report, especially in cases in which seniors isolate themselves at home, said Danfield. Many reports flood into county offices during the holidays, after relatives or friends pay a visit.
“Sometimes the house is so bad; there is no working toilet, urine though the house or piles of feces; that is a sign that something needs to be done immediately,” Danfield said. “Often, by the time the cases get referred to protective services, there are medical conditions that require hospitalization.”
FINANCIAL ABUSE
“A common theme is (for financial abusers) to attempt to isolate the person from family and friends,” said Darago’s attorney, Jeff Graham. “(They) prey upon the confusion of the victim, their insecurity over financial matters, the physical isolation and they make them suspicious of family members.”
In many financial abuse cases, someone takes control of the elder person’s finances through power of attorney, which enables a designated adult to make financial decisions on behalf of another.
“We’ve seen thousands of dollars stolen from accounts of an older person without the older person’s knowledge,” Danfield said. “It’s important, when they appoint someone (as power of attorney), it’s someone they trust.”
And then there’s the matter of care.
“The (state) Department of Public Welfare doesn’t just start paying for nursing home care,” Graham said.
In some cases, the elder person’s assets were recently liquidated and spent frivolously — on vacation and gambling for example. But the DPW sees only that a house was recently sold and the former owner should have enough money to pay for nursing care.
That leaves the victim or the victim’s family trying to convince the DPW that the person is a victim with no money for nursing care. Once that’s proven, DPW does work to help them, Graham said. However, if the person receives public assistance, the DPW expects to be reimbursed through any restitution the victim receives.
“In many cases, they lose not just money, but the freedom to make choices,” Graham said.
Sharon Merriman-Nai, a former manager with the National Center on Elder Abuse, advises caregivers to investigate if an elderly friend or family member doesn’t seem to be getting the medical treatment he or she should be able to afford. Unexplained withdrawal from normal activities, a sudden change in alertness and unusual depression also may be indicators of emotional and/or financial abuse.
“(Abusers) move in and separate them from other networks of friends or family; the perpetrator might be able to exert tremendous influence,” Merriman-Nai said. “By driving a wedge between the older individual and family, they can isolate them and manipulate them for the purpose of getting control over their assets.”
SCAMS
A survey by the National Investor Protection Trust found 20 percent of Americans 65 and up — 7.3 million people nationwide — have been victimized by financial swindles. The survey showed that more than one out of three seniors has been approached by people asking for money, lottery fees or bail, among other schemes.
Older people may not realize they’ve been scammed, they may be ashamed of what has happened, or they don’t know how to report the incident, said Michael Bannon, director of Bucks County Consumer Protection.
“Many times they don’t tell their family member, because they don’t want to disappointment them, be embarrassed or get accused of not being able to take care of themselves,” Bannon said. “There are a lot of silent victims out there; those are the ones we are really worried about.”
Bucks County Consumer Protection has experienced a recent rise in scams involving emails alerting people to phony viruses on their computer. The victim then discloses credit card information and personal information, and the scammers have what they need to steal, officials said.
“They are tricking them into giving them financial information and personal information,” said Bannon.
The phone — at least in Bucks County — is more dangerous than the Internet for seniors, he said.
“Seniors are scared about what can happen over the computer, but a smooth talker over the phone can change that hesitancy,” Bannon explained, adding that this occurs especially when they think the call is coming from a loved one.
Betty Russell, 81, of Falls, knows how savvy some of these callers can be.
“Gran,” a voice cried when she picked up the phone earlier this year. “I can’t talk. I’m in jail.”
Russell believed the caller was her grandson and that he had been jailed for drinking and driving.
“The guy said, ‘Don’t tell mom or any of the family.’ It was so real; I was shaking — just thinking about my grandson in jail. He’s pleading with me to get him $5,000 so he could get out,” she recalled.
She handed the phone to her husband, who also thought the caller was their grandson. When husband William Russell raced to the Sovereign Bank (now Santander Bank) in Yardley, a manager stepped in and warned him of a possible scam. When their grandson was contacted, he was fine.
“We’re so lucky we didn’t send it,” said Betty Russell. “It is so very sad to see what they’re doing to older people. They had no compassion. They just wanted the money.”
And that’s what the teller and Santander Bank operations manager Eva Pilla told William Russell when he showed up to withdraw the money to wire it to the caller. Pilla spotted a few red flags. Russell, she said, tried to withdraw “an unusually high amount of money and he looked upset.”
Pilla escorted Russell into the bank manager’s office, where they were able to verify that his grandson hadn’t been arrested.
Returning to the bank one recent day, Betty Russell embraced Pilla: “You’re a professional,” said Betty, one arm tightening around Pilla. “You saved us a lot of cash … God is good.”
Buchanan, who’s now 65, reached a settlement with prosecutors last year in which she avoided charges and forfeited the house she had bought with Darago’s money to Darago. Buchanan has since moved out of state.
“For (Darago), now she is in a nursing home, she’s getting Social Security disability and medical assistance,” said Marc Furber, chief of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Arson and Economic Crimes division. “We wanted to get as much money back as quickly as possible to give her the best standard of living possible.”
The elderly can make easy targets for scams, financial abuse and physical abuse and neglect, according to Furber and assistant district attorney Michelle Laucella, who prosecutes elder abuse.
People become more vulnerable as they get older, and the older people get, the more money they can have. The average net worth of people over 65 is $170,494, more than any other age group, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center report.
“If it’s not physical or mental abuse, there’s emotional abuse,” Furber said. “(Abusers) use it as a tool to accomplish their goals … they isolate the victims from family and friends and make them believe they, the abuser, is the only person who cares for them.”
Reports of elder abuse in Bucks County have more than tripled over the last decade.
“In 2000, we were getting 150 reports a year, if that,” said Chuck Danfield, older adult protective services supervisor for Bucks County. “This year, we expect that number to be closer to 480.”
Part of the reason for the increase is that the population of older Americans is growing as baby boomers enter the ranks and people, in general, live longer, Danfield said. He also attributes part of the growth to more awareness of how to report the crime and the fact that it’s now mandatory for employees of home health care agencies to alert authorities to any suspicions of elder abuse.
Using phone scams or exploitative relationships, criminals drained Pennsylvania’s aging population of $2.5 million last year, said Brian Duke, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging. Plus, he said, many seniors are suffering from emotional abuse and the most common form of abuse, neglect.
In 2011-12, Pennsylvania Area Agencies on Aging received 18,454 reports of abuse, up from 18,129 in 2010-11. A few years ago, in 2006-07, the state reported 11,962 cases of abuse.
According to the most recent state data, the three most common types of abuse experienced by older Pennsylvanians are self neglect, 41.7 percent; caregiver neglect, 24.7 percent; and financial abuse, 16.2 percent.
The issue of elder abuse, targeting those 65 and older, continues to draw more attention as the aging population grows. Pennsylvania has 2.8 million older residents — the fourth largest population of older citizens in the country, Duke said. This figure, representing roughly 15 percent of the population of the entire state, continues to grow each day.
But countless elder abuse crimes go unreported, said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who said he’s trying to address the growing problem on the federal level.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to live life where you’re already taking on difficult challenges and to be abused or victimized by someone in society preying on them because their faculties are not what they used to be,” Casey said. “It has to be terribly frustrating to someone’s dignity when it happens.”
Only one in 14 cases of abuse are reported, Casey said, but officials aren’t surprised by that number because older people may be embarrassed about being bilked out of money or even property or ashamed to report other forms of abuse or neglect.
On the state level, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year formed the Elder Law Task Force, which aims to find solutions to problems through court rules, legislation and education. The task force has focused on the qualifications of guardians, guardianship monitoring, elder abuse and power of attorney. Its findings are being finalized, according to Wilmarie Gonzalez, the state’s long-term care ombudsmen.
PHYSICAL ABUSE
On the local level, the Bucks County Area Agency on Aging, local advocacy groups and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office formed the Bucks County Crimes Against Older Adults Task Force several years ago after 83-year-old Alzheimer’s patient William J. Neff Sr. died from five broken ribs and a punctured lung in 2000. He was living at a Lower Makefield assisted-living home at the time.
Three years after his death, caregiver Heidi Tenzer was convicted of murder for stomping Neff to death.
Tenzer was an unusual perpetrator. Dansfield said the typical abuser is an adult male relative who has a drug, alcohol or mental health problem. “Because some perpetrators have some sort of problem, they either give the older adult poor care or are physically abusive to them,” he said.
Stress also can be a factor, Danfield said, as some caregivers lash out physically when they can’t cope with a pressured situation. Relatives or caregivers also may be stealing from the senior citizen.
“We’ll get a report to suggest they are being physically abused or neglected, but then we’ll look into the person’s financial situation,” he said. “We learn that one of the reasons a person is being neglected is that a perpetrator is stealing from them and preventing them from getting a different level of care.”
It’s not always easy for officials to help.
“Sometimes they don’t want our help,” said Danfield, adding that the county can get a court order for involuntary intervention if social workers suspect someone cannot make an informed decision.
The daughter of a Lower Southampton woman noticed bruises on the arms of her 83-year-old mother, who has Alzheimer’s and was a patient at an assisted-living facility. The woman also would flinch when someone went to touch her, Laucella said. A hidden camera the daughter installed in her mom’s room showed two aides had been dragging the woman whenever she had to be moved. The aides were prosecuted.
NEGLECT
When a neighbor called Bucks County’s adult protective services agency after she heard screaming from the house next door, county protective services investigators discovered an elderly man who had been handcuffed to a chair.
“We found he was being routinely handcuffed to a chair to prevent him from wandering throughout the house while family members weren’t there,” Danfield said. The man had trouble controlling his bladder and family members restrained him to prevent accidents in the house, he said.
County social service workers found an adult day care program for him. They linked him with services to help him stay at home — where he insisted on living.
“We got him out of the house to a place that could responsibly care for him during the day, and we made unannounced visits to his home to make sure he was being treated properly, along with providing him with personal assistance with his personal care,” said Danfield, adding that the caregivers did not face criminal charges.
Aside from physical neglect, which includes confinement, isolation and denial of care, some elders experience emotional neglect as a result of isolation. This emotional abuse can take many forms, according to experts, including ignoring the person, habitually blaming the elder, harassment and humiliation, threats and punishment.
Self-neglect may be tougher to spot and report, especially in cases in which seniors isolate themselves at home, said Danfield. Many reports flood into county offices during the holidays, after relatives or friends pay a visit.
“Sometimes the house is so bad; there is no working toilet, urine though the house or piles of feces; that is a sign that something needs to be done immediately,” Danfield said. “Often, by the time the cases get referred to protective services, there are medical conditions that require hospitalization.”
FINANCIAL ABUSE
“A common theme is (for financial abusers) to attempt to isolate the person from family and friends,” said Darago’s attorney, Jeff Graham. “(They) prey upon the confusion of the victim, their insecurity over financial matters, the physical isolation and they make them suspicious of family members.”
In many financial abuse cases, someone takes control of the elder person’s finances through power of attorney, which enables a designated adult to make financial decisions on behalf of another.
“We’ve seen thousands of dollars stolen from accounts of an older person without the older person’s knowledge,” Danfield said. “It’s important, when they appoint someone (as power of attorney), it’s someone they trust.”
And then there’s the matter of care.
“The (state) Department of Public Welfare doesn’t just start paying for nursing home care,” Graham said.
In some cases, the elder person’s assets were recently liquidated and spent frivolously — on vacation and gambling for example. But the DPW sees only that a house was recently sold and the former owner should have enough money to pay for nursing care.
That leaves the victim or the victim’s family trying to convince the DPW that the person is a victim with no money for nursing care. Once that’s proven, DPW does work to help them, Graham said. However, if the person receives public assistance, the DPW expects to be reimbursed through any restitution the victim receives.
“In many cases, they lose not just money, but the freedom to make choices,” Graham said.
Sharon Merriman-Nai, a former manager with the National Center on Elder Abuse, advises caregivers to investigate if an elderly friend or family member doesn’t seem to be getting the medical treatment he or she should be able to afford. Unexplained withdrawal from normal activities, a sudden change in alertness and unusual depression also may be indicators of emotional and/or financial abuse.
“(Abusers) move in and separate them from other networks of friends or family; the perpetrator might be able to exert tremendous influence,” Merriman-Nai said. “By driving a wedge between the older individual and family, they can isolate them and manipulate them for the purpose of getting control over their assets.”
SCAMS
A survey by the National Investor Protection Trust found 20 percent of Americans 65 and up — 7.3 million people nationwide — have been victimized by financial swindles. The survey showed that more than one out of three seniors has been approached by people asking for money, lottery fees or bail, among other schemes.
Older people may not realize they’ve been scammed, they may be ashamed of what has happened, or they don’t know how to report the incident, said Michael Bannon, director of Bucks County Consumer Protection.
“Many times they don’t tell their family member, because they don’t want to disappointment them, be embarrassed or get accused of not being able to take care of themselves,” Bannon said. “There are a lot of silent victims out there; those are the ones we are really worried about.”
Bucks County Consumer Protection has experienced a recent rise in scams involving emails alerting people to phony viruses on their computer. The victim then discloses credit card information and personal information, and the scammers have what they need to steal, officials said.
“They are tricking them into giving them financial information and personal information,” said Bannon.
The phone — at least in Bucks County — is more dangerous than the Internet for seniors, he said.
“Seniors are scared about what can happen over the computer, but a smooth talker over the phone can change that hesitancy,” Bannon explained, adding that this occurs especially when they think the call is coming from a loved one.
Betty Russell, 81, of Falls, knows how savvy some of these callers can be.
“Gran,” a voice cried when she picked up the phone earlier this year. “I can’t talk. I’m in jail.”
Russell believed the caller was her grandson and that he had been jailed for drinking and driving.
“The guy said, ‘Don’t tell mom or any of the family.’ It was so real; I was shaking — just thinking about my grandson in jail. He’s pleading with me to get him $5,000 so he could get out,” she recalled.
She handed the phone to her husband, who also thought the caller was their grandson. When husband William Russell raced to the Sovereign Bank (now Santander Bank) in Yardley, a manager stepped in and warned him of a possible scam. When their grandson was contacted, he was fine.
“We’re so lucky we didn’t send it,” said Betty Russell. “It is so very sad to see what they’re doing to older people. They had no compassion. They just wanted the money.”
And that’s what the teller and Santander Bank operations manager Eva Pilla told William Russell when he showed up to withdraw the money to wire it to the caller. Pilla spotted a few red flags. Russell, she said, tried to withdraw “an unusually high amount of money and he looked upset.”
Pilla escorted Russell into the bank manager’s office, where they were able to verify that his grandson hadn’t been arrested.
Returning to the bank one recent day, Betty Russell embraced Pilla: “You’re a professional,” said Betty, one arm tightening around Pilla. “You saved us a lot of cash … God is good.”
Marion Callahan: 215-345-3060; mcallahan@phillyburbs.com, Twitter: @marioncallahan
More about Elder Abuse
- ARTICLE: Aging in America isn’t easy
- ARTICLE: Help stop elder abuse
- ARTICLE: Trouble shooter: Help protect seniors from abuse
- ARTICLE: Man who preyed on elderly is jailed
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