Mild Cognitive Decline Is a Risk Factor for Scam Vulnerability in Older Adults

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.

Financial Fraud against Older People in Hong Kong: Assessing and Predicting the Fear and Perceived Risk of Victimization

“…For example, male respondents in this study may claim to have a lower level of fear than they actually experience in order to present a strong and tough image in front of others. This speculation is supported by a previous study in which men were found to be more vulnerable to fraud but less likely to report actual victimization [38]. Lastly, no specific attention being given to digital fraud seems to be a limitation in this study.…”

“…Therefore, the examination of the linear and non-linear correlations between fraud victimization, vulnerability, fear, and cognitive functioning and psychological characteristics warrants future research. Last, we share the view from the literature [38,39] that the victimization of older adults with significant cognitive impairment is typically under-reported due to their deficit in recognizing and understanding what a scam attempt is.…”

“…Third, the study may have omitted the cognitive and psychological aspects of vulnerability. A recent study concluded that older adults with mild cognitive decline had higher scam vulnerability whereas those with moderate to severe cognitive decline had lower fraud vulnerability [38]. Another study demonstrated that older victims of fraud compared with non-victims were more likely to exhibit severe depressive symptoms [39].…”

Psychosocial characteristics of victims of special fraud among Japanese older adults: A cross-sectional study using scam vulnerability scale

“…In this study, we examined the relevance of fraud vulnerability as a psychosocial characteristic associated with fraud victimisation. Scales measuring fraud vulnerability include a scale on telemarketing fraud ( James et al, 2014 ), a scale using scenarios of fraudulent situations ( Zhang et al, 2017 ), and a scale on behavioural, cognitive, and emotional characteristics found in fraud victims ( Ueno et al, 2021 ). James et al (2014) developed a five-item, seven-point telemarketing fraud vulnerability scale (e.g.…”

“…The purpose of this study is to clarify the psychosocial characteristics, including fraud vulnerability, of elderly victims of special fraud and older adults who have never experienced fraud, to promote the prevention of such fraud. To clarify fraud vulnerability with fraud victimisation, we used the Scam Vulnerability Scale ( Ueno et al, 2021 ) to compare the scores of each item between the elderly victims of fraud and older adults who have never experienced fraud.…”