Groundbreaking $100M study aims to stop Alzheimer’s before it starts

Alzheimer’s disease cannot be cured but it can be prevented. The government announced Tuesday a $100 million study to test an Alzheimer’s prevention drug in just one family. It’s potentially a breakthrough because it’s hard to test Alzheimer’s prevention.

 

Scientists can never know which healthy people will develop the disease, but now they’ve found one family in which nearly everyone develops Alzheimer’s.

 

An Alzheimer’s disease sufferer in Colombia

(Credit: CBS News)

 CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s or another forms of dementia. That’s expected to triple over the next 40 years as the population ages.

The annual cost of care – now $200 billion – could hit $1 trillion.

 The Obama administration announced a strategy Tuesday to find a treatment by 2025.

In a highly unusual move, researchers will focus this clinical trial on patients near Medellin, Colombia. Hundreds of people in one extended family were born with the genetic flaw that makes it certain they will contract Alzheimer’s by the age of 50. The patients will get shots of the leading experimental Alzheimer’s drug called Crenezumab to target what most scientists think is the root cause of disease: the buildup, deep in the brain, of the toxic amyloid protein. If the family members get no buildup of the protein, scientists hope they won’t develop Alzheimer’s.

 

Promising Alzheimer’s research delayed by shortage of volunteer patients
More on Alzheimer’s from the NIH

 

Dr. Eric Reiman

(Credit: CBS News)

“We believe that it is time to launch a new era in Alzheimer’s prevention research,” said Dr. Eric Reiman, the lead clinical researcher for the trial. “Most but not all researchers believe that the accumulation of amyloid plays a critical role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, and if that’s right, and if we start early enough, we may have a way to stop the disease in its tracks before people develop symptoms.”

 

Another possible outcome would also represent a breakthrough. If the drug stops the amyloid buildup and the patients still get Alzheimer, researchers will learn amyloid is not the cause.

 

This trial could fail, and still tell science what it needs to know.

 

“If the study fails, it would compel the research community to start searching for, to target other elements of the disease, so that we can find a way to prevent it as soon as possible,” Reiman said.

 

Technically, the clinical trial has yet to win formal approval in either the U.S. or in Colombia, but approval is expected. The trial will study 300 patients in Colombia, and will look for 24 Americans at high risk of getting Alzheimer’s and who are willing to take the experimental shots.

Threat Of Hunger Skyrockets Among Seniors Over Last Decade…

One in seven seniors in America — some 8.3 million people — faced the threat of hunger in 2010, a 78 percent spike since 2001, according to a study released today by Meals On Wheels, the nonprofit that delivers meals to the homebound.

The “Senior Hunger Report Card” found while the risk of hunger for the U.S. population as a whole has declined since the end of the recession in 2009, it rose for people age 60 and older, mainly among those earning less than $30,000 –- or one to two times the poverty level. (The federal poverty level in 2010, the period studied, was $10,830 for a single person and $14,570 for a couple.) James P. Ziliak of the University of Kentucky and Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois authored the report.

“There is no question that we are failing our seniors, some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens,” said Enid A. Borden, CEO of the Meals On Wheels Research Foundation, in a statement. “The numbers spell out our failure with clarity, and at the same time they call us to action. No one in this, the richest nation on Earth should face the threat of hunger, no one. And seniors, who have little power to change their circumstances, deserve our special attention.” (See Borden’s exclusive Huff/Post50 blog post on the report for more.)

At greatest risk were seniors living in the South and Southwest, minorities, people who were divorced or separated, the disabled, and seniors age 60 to 69 (versus those over age 75). In terms of geography, the threat of hunger for seniors increased in 44 states since 2007, the report found, rising two percentage points in the “Top Ten Hunger States” (see slideshow below). Hunger risk declined or remained the same in just six states: Mississippi, Minnesota, South Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana and Idaho.

Women make up 60 percent of the population facing a hunger risk; African-Americans and Hispanics are nearly twice as likely to confront a hunger threat -– although food insecurity for these groups has declined since 2008.

Hunger translates into economic challenges for the U.S. economy, note Ziliak and Gundersen in the paper: “… food insecurity is associated with a host of poor health outcomes for seniors such as reduced nutrient intakes and limitations in activities of daily living. This implies that the recent increase in senior hunger will likely lead to additional nutritional and health challenges for our nation.”

Hunger risk also affects extended family: : “…the prospects for being under the threat of hunger greatly exceed those households with no grandchild present,” the authors write. Some 31 percent of seniors living with a grandchild were food insecure — although that’s down from 36 percent in 2009.

The report based its measurement of hunger risk on the Current Population Survey (CPS), which includes a series of up to 18 questions on food security over the previous 30 days and 12 months. This report focused on the one-year period.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/threat-of-hunger-hunger-risk-food-insecurity_n_1475367.html?ref=email_share

Weekend Winedown Event to Raise Funds for Central PA Alzheimer’s Association…

Save the Date! Join us on September 7th, 2012 at Seven Mountains  Wine Cellars for an evening of fun, food and wine tasting! Wine and Food Pairing Stations will be set-up, along with a Silent Auction, and live music by Carson’s Window! Tickets will be available June 1st. Reserve your tickets NOW! Limited number of tickets will be sold. 100% of all proceeds will benefit the Central PA Alzheimer’s Associaton. Call 814-238-8820 for additional information. Ask for Crystal Henry.

War Veterans Get Chance to travel to Memorials

World War II veterans Zada Magoun, left, Joe Pletcher, middle, and Bill Poorman, right, are taking a to trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the World War II Memorial. The charity Honor Flight is paying for the trip.

BOALSBURG — Zada Magoun, Joe Pletcher and Bill Poorman climbed into a minivan Friday, bound for a weekend getaway.
This was no ordinary excursion for the three Bellefonte residents. They were embarking on a trip of a lifetime.
The World War II veterans traveled to Philadelphia, their first stop on an all-expenses paid tour of veterans memorials in Washington, D.C., courtesy of local donations and the Honor Flight program.
Started in 2005, Honor Flight primarily brings World War II veterans to the capital to see the National World War II Memorial. It’s a national program with regional hubs, some of which have started taking Korean War and Vietnam War veterans to their respective memorials.
This morning, after spending the night in Philadelphia, Magoun, Pletcher and Poorman are riding an Honor Flight bus full of veterans to Washington and visiting Arlington National Cemetery in time to see the ritual guard change at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
From there, the trio’s itinerary includes the Marine Corps Memorial, the Korean and Vietnam War memorials, the National Museum of the U.S. Navy and the World War II memorial.
Poorman, 88, served in the Army’s 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion through the Battle of Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. Like his travelmates, he had never been to the World War II memorial.
“It’ll be lovely, and I appreciate it,” he said.
Magoun, 88, an Army nurse in New Orleans and Texas hospitals, said she was sorry that her three brothers who fought in the war died before they could visit the memorial.
“We’re lucky to get there,” she said.
Accompanying the veterans are the trip’s co-organizers: Ken Pendleton, the community outreach director for the local Home Instead Senior Care office, and Vickey Confer, the director of the Bellefonte and Snow Shoe senior centers.
Pendleton, whose father was a World War II veteran, heard about Honor Flight more than a year ago. A student of the war, he set out to gauge local interest in a trip. He eventually spoke with Confer, who shares his interest in the history.
Confer liked the idea. She asked around in the senior centers, and the three veterans responded.
“When they were interested, it was a no-brainer,” Pendleton said. “Of course, we were going to accommodate them. Whatever they wanted to do, we were going to make it happen.”
Pendleton and Confer applied to the Honor Flight hub in Philadelphia. Once they were accepted, the pair raised about $1,000 in cash and services to cover transportation to Philadelphia and the veterans’ lodging and meals.
The American Legion Post 33 in Bellefonte and the Veterans of Foreign War Post 8269 in Howard each contributed $100. From the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 4320 in Bellefonte came $500.
Other supporters included the Centre County Office of Aging and Home Instead Senior Care, which provided the minivan. Honor Flight pays for the bus trip, including the cost of medical attendants.
Pletcher, 86, survived the Battle of the Bulge with the Army’s 572nd Anti-aircraft Battalion. About to depart Friday, he looked forward to finally beholding the World War II memorial.
“It’s very exciting to take friends to there,” he said.
After their whirlwind day, the veterans will return to Philadelphia for dinner and stay overnight before driving home Sunday.
“I feel honored to be a part of it,” Confer said Friday. “I know it’s going to be a very rewarding and emotional weekend.”
Pendleton brought a digital recorder to capture the stories he expects to hear on the bus and at the memorials.
“I think for me it represents a culmination of at least 40 years of interest in World War II, and the men and women who fought the war,” he said.
“It’s a chance for me to talk to these people, maybe one of the last chances to be able to talk to a large group of them and hear their stories and understand their strength of character, who they are as patriots and heroes of our community.”

Top 5 Reasons for Hospital Readmissions, and How to Prevent It

A recent study conducted by The Dartmouth Institute found that one in six Medicare patients is readmitted to the hospital within 30 days after being discharged. And more than half do not see their doctor within two weeks after leaving the hospital.

The researchers analyzed the hospital records of 10.7 million Medicare patients and found, “widespread and systematic failures in coordinating care for patients after they leave the hospital,” said David C. Goodman, M.D., M.S., lead author and co-principal investigator for the Dartmouth Atlas Project. “Irrespective of the cause, unnecessary hospital readmissions lead to more tests and treatments, more time away from home and family, and higher health care costs.”

According to CMS the costs associated with avoidable readmissions exceed $17 billion a year. To combat this, Medicare will begin implementing plans in 2013 to reduce these costs by imposing penalties on hospitals with excessive readmission numbers. The penalties are based on the hospital’s total Medicare billings and will start at one percent in 2013, then increase to two percent in 2014, and three percent in 2015. “The need to develop more efficient systems of care that include discharge planning and care coordination is clear,” said Elliott S. Fisher, M.D., M.P.H., report author and co-principal investigator of the Dartmouth Atlas Project. When confronted with the threat of considerable financial risk, Medicare hopes hospitals will take the steps necessary to improve their systems of care and reduce readmissions.

Top 5 reasons for patient readmissions

In a companion piece to this study Dartmouth published Care About Your Care, which lists some of the reasons patients are readmitted. The top five:

1. Patients may not fully understanding what’s wrong with them
2. Patients  may be confused over which medications to take and when
3. Hospitals don’t provide patients or doctors with important information or test results
4. Patients do not schedule a follow up appointment with their doctor
5. Family members lack proper knowledge to provide adequate care

 
Regardless of the cause, preventable readmissions are costing billions of dollars a year, and Medicare patients are hit especially hard. The good news is there’s a lot you can do to avoid having to be readmitted to the hospital. Forgive us for inserting a sports analogy, but this truly is a case of, “the best defense is a good offense.” You can go on the offensive and take steps that will greatly increase your chances of a positive outcome. And it’s not that difficult. There are plenty of people and resources to assist you.

Here are some things you can do to prevent being readmitted to the hospital.

First, do a little research and learn about the type of health care provided by different hospitals in your area. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a website that can help you research and compare hospitals at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. There’s also a report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project called, After Hospitalization: A Dartmouth Atlas Report on Post-Acute Care for Medicare Beneficiarie. This report examines “how effectively communities and hospitals coordinate care for patients when they leave the hospital.”

After you’ve picked the best hospital, what should you do to help ensure you won’t have to be readmitted?  As with many things, success here begins with proper planning. Before you leave the hospital create a written discharge plan. It should contain all of the information you, or anyone who will be taking care of you, will need to make sure you get proper care. Doing so can help reduce your risk of being readmitted. Your plan should include things like your discharge date, follow-up appointments, phone numbers, medications, homecare/homehealth and a host of other things. Your hospital may have someone on staff that can help you, or you can use one of the planning check lists that you can download from the Internet. Here are two that you might find helpful:

Taking Care of Myself: A Guide for When I leave the Hospital: www.ahrq.gov/qual/goinghomeguide.pdf

Your Discharge Planning Checklist: For patients and their caregivers preparing to leave a hospital, nursing home, or other health care setting: www.medicare.gov/publications/pubs/pdf/11376.pdf

It’s important to go through your planning check list thoroughly and write everything down so you and others can refer to it when necessary. Remember to review it with your doctor and/or health care staff before you leave the hospital to make sure the information it contains is complete and accurate. And start early; there’s no reason to wait till just before you’re released.

How to Deal with Family Conflict Caused by Alzheimer’s

Only when families work together as a team can their loved ones with Alzheimer’s receive the best love and care possible.

Shortly after her father passed away, Valerie’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

“When it became apparent that there was something wrong with my mother, my brother told me, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m done with her.’

I don’t know what happened between them, but he was true to his word. He was really scarce with his visits. I guess since I am her caregiver, I’m out too. He has no contact with me. I am really alone in this endeavor to take care of Mom. Alzheimer’s has broken up my family.”

Sadly, an ill loved one is the number one trigger for family conflict, according to a study conducted by the Home Instead Senior Care^® network. Coping with the reality of a loved one’s Alzheimer’s not only has its emotional difficulties, but logistical ones as well, especially in terms of decision-making and bearing the responsibility of caregiving. Despite these challenges, the following tips may help you unite your family around your loved one with Alzheimer’s when that person needs family support the most.

• Communicate Regularly. Don’t allow weeks to turn into months and years of not communicating with family members you feel should take a vested interest in your parents’ condition and care. If you’ve fallen out of touch with a member of your family, reach out through a phone call, email, card or letter.
• Empathize.Difficult situations affect everyone differently, so try to understand your sibling’s point of view before getting angry or upset. Approaching the issue this way will help you suggest an appropriate solution. Maybe your brother can’t emotionally deal with Mom “losing her mind.” If that’s the case, maybe he can help you by contributing financially to her care instead.

  Empathy was one main factor that helped keep the Hamilton sisters united. The stress of their mother’s illness affected every person in the family differently, but as you’ll learn from their family’s story, they persevered through the challenges to provide the loving care they felt their mother deserved.

• Ask for Help. If you feel over-burdened by the responsibility of caregiving, inform the rest of your family (without complaining or blaming others). Your sibling(s) may assume you’re doing just find handling everything on your own unless you tell them what challenges you’re facing and specific ways they can help. As the maxim goes, “a burden shared is a burden halved.”
• Make Decisions Together. Even if you serve as the primary caregiver of your parents, involve your sibling(s) when you need to make a major care decision. Maybe you feel Dad’s Alzheimer’s has progressed to a point where he needs additional assistance, and you’re looking into hiring a professional in-home caregiver for him. Talk through the pros, cons, financial considerations and possible alternatives with your siblings before you make a decision. Taking their thoughts and opinions into account will help to eliminate any hard feelings, grudges or resentments.
• Leave Childhood Rivalries Behind. Easier said than done, of course, but try to approach the issue as the adult you are now, not as the younger person your siblings may still see you as. Stepping back and realizing how unresolved issues from long ago influence your present relationships may put a helpful new perspective on your current situation.
• Enlist the Help of a Mediator. Sometimes family issues become too complicated or emotionally charged to solve on your own. A third-party resource, particularly a professional such as a counselor, mediator or even a doctor or geriatric care manager, can provide an impartial voice of reason.

Only when families work together as a team can their loved ones with Alzheimer’s receive the best love and care possible. Remember that regardless of your past history or current situation, all relationships are a work-in-progress. Envisioning how efforts to make amends will ultimately benefit everyone and can help steer you and your family members on a path toward reconciliation.

For additional support managing family relationships and resolving family conflict, visit www.caregiverstress.com

A Call to Action; What Experts Say Needs to Be Done to Meet the Challenges of Family Caregiving…

A new AARP report entitled A Call to Action: What Experts Say Needs to be Done to Meet the Challenges of Family Caregiving “defines the challenges facing America’s family caregivers and calls for a reexamination of policies and strategies to strengthen and support caregiving families.”  The report was compiled by “an AARP forum of authors and experts in health and caregiving…[who] concluded that family caregivers need better education and awareness; more financial relief; better communication and collaboration with healthcare professionals; heightened recognition of their contribution from healthcare providers; and a variety of supports in policy initiatives.”  One suggestion made in this report involves educating “Americans about what Medicare does—and does not—cover”; according to contributor Jane Gross, a writer for the New York Times, one question she often hears from family caregivers is, “What do you mean Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term services and supports?” Read More…

Cancer drug reverses Alzheimers symptoms in mice, study says

Cancer drug reverses Alzheimers symptoms in mice, study says.

Exercise May Keep Alzheimer’s Disease at Bay…

Alzheimer’s disease, with its inexorable loss of memory and self, understandably alarms most of us. This is especially so since, at the moment, there are no cures for the condition and few promising drug treatments. But a cautiously encouraging new study from The Archives of Neurology suggests that for some people, a daily walk or jog could alter the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or change the course of the disease if it begins.

For the experiment, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis recruited 201 adults, ages 45 to 88, who were part of a continuing study at the university’s Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Some of the participants had a family history of Alzheimer’s, but none, as the study began, showed clinical symptoms of the disease. They performed well on tests of memory and thinking. “They were, as far as we could determine, cognitively normal,” says Denise Head, an associate professor of psychology at Washington University who led the study.

The volunteers had not had their brains scanned, however, so the Washington University scientists began their experiment by using positron emission tomography, an advanced scanning technique, to look inside the volunteers’ brains for signs of amyloid plaques, the deposits that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. People with a lot of plaque tend to have more memory loss, though the relation is complex.

Next they genetically typed their volunteers for APOE, a gene involved in cholesterol metabolism. Everyone carries the APOE gene, but scientists have determined that those who have a particular variation of the gene known as e4 are at 15 times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared with those who do not carry the variant. The report also noted that carriers tend to show symptoms of dementia at a younger age, beginning in their late 60s, on average, instead of in their early 80s for people without the variant.

Fifty-six of the volunteers, of various ages and both sexes, turned out to be positive for APOE-e4. (A family history of Alzheimer’s may suggest that someone is a carrier for the e4 variant, Dr. Head says, but it also may not; there are probably many other, still-unknown genetic causes of the disease, she says.)

Finally, the scientists asked the volunteers to fill out detailed questionnaires about their exercise habits during the past 10 years. Recently, many studies have looked at whether being active can lessen someone’s risk for Alzheimer’s, but the results have been inconsistent, with some studies, in both animals and people, suggesting that regular exercise has a protective effect and others finding little discernible benefit.

One reason for the inconsistency, Dr. Head suspected, might be that many earlier studies did not differentiate between people with the e4 variant and those without, and each group, at least potentially, could respond differently to exercise.

And that certainly proved to be the case in this study. For the group as a whole, exercise provided marginal benefits. The volunteers who reported walking or jogging often — meeting (or, in rare instances, exceeding) the American Heart Association’s exercise recommendation of 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity five times a week — had fewer amyloid plaques than the volunteers who reported almost never exercising. But the preventive value of the exercise was small, barely reaching the level of statistical significance.

That situation changed, however, when the scientists examined the results for people with the e4 gene variant. Most of those who carried the APOE-e4 gene displayed much larger accumulations of amyloid plaques than those without it.

Unless they exercised. The carriers of the gene who reported walking or jogging for at least 30 minutes five times a week had plaque accumulation similar to that of volunteers who were e4-negative. In essence, the APOE-e4 gene carriers mitigated their inherited risk for developing Alzheimer’s by working out. Or, as the study authors wrote, a “physically active lifestyle may allow e4 carriers to experience brain amyloid levels equivalent to e4-negative individuals.”

“The good news is that we found that activity levels, which are potentially modifiable, could have an impact” on plaque accumulation — and presumably on the course of Alzheimer’s — in people with a genetic predisposition to the condition, Dr. Head says.

But the findings came with a downside, too. An overwhelming majority of the people in the study were sedentary, and for them, an inactive lifestyle seemed to be accelerating the accumulation of amyloid plaques. Those with the e4 variant who rarely or never exercised had the most plaques, putting them at heightened risk for the memory loss of Alzheimer’s in the years to come.

At the moment, it’s not known whether beginning to exercise after plaques have started to build up might alter that outcome, Dr. Head says. But, she continues, experiments in mice bred to develop memory loss “have shown that elderly animals that began a running program benefited.” They experienced less dementia than mice that didn’t run.

Still, countless questions remain about the interactions of exercise, genetics and Alzheimer’s, including why the protective benefits of exercise in this study seemed substantial only for those with the gene variant. “It is looking as if there is some still-unexplained biochemical interplay between being e4-positive and inactive,” Dr. Head says, “which heightens risk” for the disease.

“But that doesn’t mean that everyone shouldn’t exercise,” she continues, regardless of whether they suspect they have a genetic risk for dementia. “There are so many benefits to exercise,” she says, “and one may be that it helps the brain” to defend itself against the slow leaking away of memory.

Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/how-exercise-may-keep-alzheimers-at-bay/

Top 10 Scams Targeting Seniors…

Financial scams targeting seniors have become so prevalent that they’re now considered “the crime of the 21st century.”

Why? Because seniors are thought to have a significant amount of money sitting in their accounts.

Financial scams also often go unreported or can be difficult to prosecute, so they’re considered a “low-risk” crime. However, they’re devastating to many older adults and can leave them in a very vulnerable position with little time to recoup their losses.

It’s not just wealthy seniors who are targeted. Low-income older adults are also at risk of financial abuse.

And it’s not always strangers who perpetrate these crimes. Over 90% of all reported elder abuse is committed by an older person’s own family members, most often their adult children, followed by grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and others.

Review our list below, so you can identify a potential scam.

1. Health Care/Medicare/Health Insurance Fraud

Every U.S. citizen or permanent resident over age 65 qualifies for Medicare, so there is rarely any need for a scam artist to research what private health insurance company older people have in order to scam them out of some money.

In these types of scams, perpetrators may pose as a Medicare representative to get older people to give them their personal information, or they will provide bogus services for elderly people at makeshift mobile clinics, then use the personal information they provide to bill Medicare and pocket the money.

2. Counterfeit Prescription Drugs

Most commonly, counterfeit drug scams operate on the Internet, where seniors increasingly go to find better prices on specialized medications.

This scam is growing in popularity—since 2000, the FDA has investigated an average of 20 such cases per year, up from five a year in the 1990s.

The danger is that besides paying money for something that will not help a person’s medical condition, victims may purchase unsafe substances that can inflict even more harm. This scam can be as hard on the body as it is on the wallet.

3. Funeral & Cemetery Scams

The FBI warns about two types of funeral and cemetery fraud perpetrated on seniors.

In one approach, scammers read obituaries and call or attend the funeral service of a complete stranger to take advantage of the grieving widow or widower. Claiming the deceased had an outstanding debt with them, scammers will try to extort money from relatives to settle the fake debts.

Another tactic of disreputable funeral homes is to capitalize on family members’ unfamiliarity with the considerable cost of funeral services to add unnecessary charges to the bill.

In one common scam of this type, funeral directors will insist that a casket, usually one of the most expensive parts of funeral services, is necessary even when performing a direct cremation, which can be accomplished with a cardboard casket rather than an expensive display or burial casket.

4. Fraudulent Anti-Aging Products

In a society bombarded with images of the young and beautiful, it’s not surprising that some older people feel the need to conceal their age in order to participate more fully in social circles and the workplace. After all, 60 is the new 40, right?

It is in this spirit that many older Americans seek out new treatments and medications to maintain a youthful appearance, putting them at risk of scammers.

Whether it’s fake Botox like the one in Arizona that netted its distributors (who were convicted and jailed in 2006) $1.5 million in barely a year, or completely bogus homeopathic remedies that do absolutely nothing, there is money in the anti-aging business.

Botox scams are particularly unsettling, as renegade labs creating versions of the real thing may still be working with the root ingredient, botulism neurotoxin, which is one of the most toxic substances known to science. A bad batch can have health consequences far beyond wrinkles or drooping neck muscles.

5. Telemarketing

Perhaps the most common scheme is when scammers use fake telemarketing calls to prey on older people, who as a group make twice as many purchases over the phone than the national average.

While the image of the lonely senior citizen with nobody to talk to may have something to do with this, it is far more likely that older people are more familiar with shopping over the phone, and therefore might not be fully aware of the risk.

With no face-to-face interaction, and no paper trail, these scams are incredibly hard to trace. Also, once a successful deal has been made, the buyer’s name is then shared with similar schemers looking for easy targets, sometimes defrauding the same person repeatedly.

Examples of telemarketing fraud include:

“The Pigeon Drop”

The con artist tells the individual that he/she has found a large sum of money and is willing to split it if the person will make a “good faith” payment by withdrawing funds from his/her bank account. Often, a second con artist is involved, posing as a lawyer, banker, or some other trustworthy stranger.

“The Fake Accident Ploy”

The con artist gets the victim to wire or send money on the pretext that the person’s child or another relative is in the hospital and needs the money.

“Charity Scams”

Money is solicited for fake charities. This often occurs after natural disasters.

6. Internet Fraud

While using the Internet is a great skill at any age, the slower speed of adoption among some older people makes them easier targets for automated Internet scams that are ubiquitous on the web and email programs.

Pop-up browser windows simulating virus-scanning software will fool victims into either downloading a fake anti-virus program (at a substantial cost) or an actual virus that will open up whatever information is on the user’s computer to scammers.

Their unfamiliarity with the less visible aspects of browsing the web (firewalls and built-in virus protection, for example) make seniors especially susceptible to such traps.

One example includes:

Email/Phishing Scams

A senior receives email messages that appear to be from a legitimate company or institution, asking them to “update” or “verify” their personal information. A senior receives emails that appear to be from the IRS about a tax refund.

7. Investment Schemes

Because many seniors find themselves planning for retirement and managing their savings once they finish working, a number of investment schemes have been targeted at seniors looking to safeguard their cash for their later years.

From pyramid schemes like Bernie Madoff’s (which counted a number of senior citizens among its victims) to fables of a Nigerian prince looking for a partner to claim inheritance money to complex financial products that many economists don’t even understand, investment schemes have long been a successful way to take advantage of older people.

8. Homeowner/Reverse Mortgage Scams

Scammers like to take advantage of the fact that many people above a certain age own their homes, a valuable asset that increases the potential dollar value of a certain scam.

A particularly elaborate property tax scam in San Diego saw fraudsters sending personalized letters to different properties apparently on behalf of the County Assessor’s Office. The letter, made to look official but displaying only public information, would identify the property’s assessed value and offer the homeowner, for a fee of course, to arrange for a reassessment of the property’s value and therefore the tax burden associated with it.

Closely related, the reverse mortgage scam has mushroomed in recent years. With legitimate reverse mortgages increasing in frequency more than 1,300% between 1999 and 2008, scammers are taking advantage of this new popularity.

As opposed to official refinancing schemes, however, unsecured reverse mortgages can lead property owners to lose their homes when the perpetrators offer money or a free house somewhere else in exchange for the title to the property.

9. Sweepstakes & Lottery Scams

This simple scam is one that many are familiar with, and it capitalizes on the notion that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

Here, scammers inform their mark that they have won a lottery or sweepstakes of some kind and need to make some sort of payment to unlock the supposed prize. Often, seniors will be sent a check that they can deposit in their bank account, knowing that while it shows up in their account immediately, it will take a few days before the (fake) check is rejected.

During that time, the criminals will quickly collect money for supposed fees or taxes on the prize, which they pocket while the victim has the “prize money” removed from his or her account as soon as the check bounces.

10. The Grandparent Scam

The Grandparent Scam is so simple and so devious because it uses one of older adults’ most reliable assets, their hearts.

Scammers will place a call to an older person and when the mark picks up, they will say something along the lines of: “Hi Grandma, do you know who this is?” When the unsuspecting grandparent guesses the name of the grandchild the scammer most sounds like, the scammer has established a fake identity without having done a lick of background research.

Once “in,” the fake grandchild will usually ask for money to solve some unexpected financial problem (overdue rent, payment for car repairs, etc.), to be paid via Western Union or MoneyGram, which don’t always require identification to collect.

At the same time, the scam artist will beg the grandparent “please don’t tell my parents, they would kill me.”

While the sums from such a scam are likely to be in the hundreds, the very fact that no research is needed makes this a scam that can be perpetrated over and over at very little cost to the scammer. For more tips visit www.ncoa.org