Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Sep 5;6(9):e2335319. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.35319.
Financial fraud and scams targeting older adults are on the rise and pose serious public health and economic threats. Research on the vulnerability of older adults to fraud and scams relies almost exclusively on self-reported data, which have several intrinsic limitations. Thus, how older adults truly respond to fraud attempts remains unclear.
To explore the vulnerability of older adults to a US government impersonation scam.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study, conducted from October to December 2021 among communities in the greater Chicago metropolitan area, was framed as a fictitious government agency reaching out to older adults about a potential compromise of personal information relevant to their Social Security and Medicare benefits. Participants were older adults participating in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing cohort study of chronic conditions of aging. Data analysis was performed from February to August 2023.
Participants were exposed to deceptive materials through mailers, emails, and phone calls by a live agent.
Based on the phone call data, participants were classified into 3 groups: no engagement (participants who did not answer the phone or call in), engagement (those who answered or called in but were skeptical about the legitimacy of the outreach and did not give away personal information), and conversion (participants who answered or called in without skepticism, or confirmed that they did not change their personal information, or provided the last 4 digits of their Social Security number).
A total of 644 older adults (501 [77.8%] female, 143 [22.2%] male), with a mean (SD) age of 85.6 (7.5) years, were included. A total of 441 (68.5%) participants did not engage, 97 (15.1%) engaged but raised skepticism, and 106 (16.4%) converted. Older adults who engaged but with skepticism had the highest cognition and financial literacy, while those in the conversion group had the lowest scam awareness. No differences were observed in psychological and other behavioral measures by the levels of engagement.
In this cross-sectional study using a behavioral experiment that mimicked a real-world imposter scam, a sizable number of older adults engaged without skepticism. Results suggest that many older adults, including those without cognitive impairment, are vulnerable to fraud and scams.
针对老年人的财务欺诈和诈骗呈上升趋势，对公共健康和经济构成严重威胁。针对老年人易受欺诈和诈骗影响的研究几乎完全依赖于自我报告的数据，这些数据存在一些内在的局限性。因此，老年人对欺诈尝试的真实反应尚不清楚。
探讨老年人对美国政府冒名诈骗的易感性。
设计、地点和参与者：这项横断面研究于 2021 年 10 月至 12 月在芝加哥大都市区的社区进行，其框架是一个虚构的政府机构与老年人联系，告知他们与社会安全和医疗保险福利相关的个人信息可能受到损害。参与者是参加 Rush 记忆与衰老项目的老年人，这是一项关于衰老慢性疾病的正在进行的队列研究。数据分析于 2023 年 2 月至 8 月进行。
参与者通过邮件、电子邮件和电话与现场代理接触到欺骗性材料。
根据电话数据，参与者被分为 3 组：无参与（未接电话或未回电的参与者）、参与（接听或回电但对联系的合法性持怀疑态度且未透露个人信息的参与者）和转换（接听或回电且未持怀疑态度，或确认未更改个人信息，或提供社会安全号码的最后 4 位数字的参与者）。
共纳入 644 名老年人（501 名[77.8%]女性，143 名[22.2%]男性），平均（SD）年龄为 85.6（7.5）岁。共有 441 名（68.5%）参与者未参与，97 名（15.1%）参与但表示怀疑，106 名（16.4%）参与且表示转换。表示怀疑但参与的老年人认知和金融知识水平最高，而转换组的诈骗意识最低。在认知和其他行为措施方面，参与程度没有差异。
在这项使用模仿现实世界冒名诈骗的行为实验的横断面研究中，相当数量的老年人没有怀疑地参与其中。结果表明，许多老年人，包括没有认知障碍的老年人，容易受到欺诈和诈骗的影响。
