Abstract
Research on elderly financial exploitation has mostly focused on financial abuse that occurs in families and other types of trusted relationships. As such, little is known about financial frauds and scams perpetrated by strangers. Financial fraud and scam prevention activities for older adults must be promoted, for which the correlation between the psychological, social, and cognitive characteristics of their vulnerability needs to be determined. The present study aimed to determine whether cognitive decline is a risk factor for scam vulnerability in older adults. Thus, we created a scam vulnerability scale for older adults with cognitive decline and analyzed the data to reveal the correlation between them, including inhibition and executive function. We conducted an interview survey with 50 older adults with cognitive decline (average age: 79.42 years, SD: 5.44) and 51 older adults without cognitive decline (average age: 76.12 years, SD: 5.82). The interview survey included the scam vulnerability scale, psychosocial questionnaires, and neuropsychological tests. The scale included six items with a four-point Likert scale based on a previous study. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that lower scores on the Japanese version of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Jcog; indicating higher general cognitive function) correlated with higher scam vulnerability in the cognitive decline group (β = −0.46, p < 0.001). In addition, men were found to be more vulnerable in both groups (cognitive decline group: β = −0.29, p = 0.015, cognitive non-decline group; β = −0.32, p = 0.018). Inhibition and executive function were found not to correlate significantly with scam vulnerability. These results suggest that mild cognitive decline correlates with higher scam vulnerability, whereas moderate to severe cognitive decline correlates with lower vulnerability, possibly because it makes understanding the scam attempt itself difficult. Older adults with mild cognitive decline and their families, particularly those visiting elderly care or outpatient facilities, should be notified of the scam vulnerability of older clients using the ADAS-Jcog score as an index to help them avoid victimization.
Highlights
In Japan, the number of reported scam cases was 16,851 in 2019, amounting to total damage of 31.58 billion JPY (∼305.7 million USD) [1]
No significant correlation between inhibition or executive function, and scam vulnerability was found. These results suggest that older adults with mild cognitive decline have higher scam vulnerability because older adults with moderate to severe cognitive decline may have difficulty understanding situations and making appropriate decisions
The direction of correlation between cognitive function and fraud vulnerability differed depending on the level of the participants’ cognitive function, our findings suggest that mild cognitive decline is a risk factor for scam vulnerability in older adults and that severe cognitive decline is not correlated with scam vulnerability
Summary
In Japan, the number of reported scam cases was 16,851 in 2019, amounting to total damage of 31.58 billion JPY (∼305.7 million USD) [1]. In 83.7% of these cases, the victims were older adults, and there is a more prevalent rate of consumer fraud among older adults compared with the United States [2]. As risk factors of financial fraud and scam victimization, Fenge and Lee [3] summarize psychological characteristics (e.g., emotion), social characteristics (e.g., social isolation or loneliness), and cognitive characteristics (e.g., cognitive impairment) from their small exploratory quantitative study in older adults. Button et al [4] reported fraudster techniques committed against online fraud victims, including grooming, authority and legitimacy, visceral appeals, embarrassing the victim, or pressure and coercion. Fraud and scam victimization is associated with broken relationships within families, thinking about or attempted suicide, and fear of violence or legal action [6]. Financial fraud and scam prevention activities must be promoted, and this requires research on the correlation between the psychological, social, and cognitive characteristics and their vulnerability to frauds and scams
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