Exploring the Risks and Consequences of Elder Fraud Victimization: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

Abstract

This is the first study to use longitudinal data to explore both the antecedents and consequences of fraud victimization in the older population. Because older persons are close to or past the peak of their wealth accumulation, they are often the targets of fraud. This paper reports on analysis of the Leave Behind Questionnaires (LBQs) fielded on Health and Retirement Study (HRS) respondents over three survey waves in 2008, 2010, and 2012. We evaluate the demographic determinants and risk factors of reporting financial fraud victimization in the survey, and explore whether there are demographic subgroups of older victims. In addition, we examine the financial, physical and psychological consequences of fraud. Overall results suggest that there is no single reliable predictor of fraud victimization across all three LBQ samples. When LBQ responses were pooled across survey years, we found that younger, male, bettereducated, and depressed persons reported being defrauded significantly more often. Victimization was associated with lower non-housing wealth in the combined sample controlling for other factors, but had no measurable impact on cognitive, psychological, or physical health outcomes. Future research should examine predictors and outcomes based on the type of financial fraud experienced and the amount of money lost. Disciplines Disciplines Economics Comments Comments

Life Course Violence: Child Maltreatment, IPV, and Elder Abuse Phenotypes in a US Chinese Population

“…Another interesting finding is that psychological and physical/sexual abuse (CM and IPV) experiences were associated with 2 to 3 times higher risks of experiencing EA financial exploitation. Prior longitudinal analyses examining individual‐level aspects (eg, sociodemographics and financial knowledge) found little about predictive factors of financial exploitation . Future research may consider exploring how financial exploitation coexists and interacts with other forms of violence.…”

Aging and Financial Exploitation Risk

“…These stressors are widely recognized as adversely impacting psychological well-being. However, the specific toll of financial exploitation remains poorly studied and is likely underestimated (15).…”

Does Fixed Income Buffer against Fraud Shocks?

“…What happens when fraud interacts with financial literacy in terms of retirement planning? Low levels of financial literacy lead to fraud victimization (DeLiema et al 2018a;Mitchell 2018), and victimization leads one to engage in riskier behavior in the future (Gamble et al 2014). The present paper shows that fraud leads to poorer retirement outcomes.…”

“…In an online newspaper article, Mitchell (2018) cited the two prior studies (DeLiema et al 2018a(DeLiema et al , 2018b. She highlighted other findings from those two studies than were previously mentioned.…”

“…Of the 1,260 respondents from the 2008 to 2016 waves, nearly 8% identified as having invested in a fraudulent scheme. Unlike many other recent studies on fraud, DeLiema et al (2018aDeLiema et al ( , 2018b and Mitchell (2018) uncovered twice as many fraud cases because they included specific types of fraud in their analyses.…”