But dont be misled.
And about 3 out of 10 instances can be traced to friends, neighbors or home care aides.
In other words, 90 percent of perpetrators of fraud are known to their victims.
Even scarier: The closer the tie between perpetrator and victim, the greater the damage.
Criminals within the family got even more: $148,000.
And the thieves who stole the most money $262,000, on average were the victims children.
But elder-abuse experts say this crime infects a wide range of households.
You just dont hear about it.
Only 1 in 44 cases of elder financial abuse get reported, estimates the National Adult Protective Services Association.
Families dont want to air conflicts.
People doubt money will be recovered.
They also fear the perpetrator.
Our narratives are based on witness interviews, legal records and other documents.
Due to some sources fear of retaliation, some identities have been disguised.
(All names in this family have been changed.)
Amy, also from California, put her mothers home up for sale.
Then Amys only sibling, Randy, got involved.
But when he learned the house had to be sold, he became attentivefast, Amy recalls.
Amy consulted a lawyer about fighting back, but the $10,000 retainer was too much.
She and her brother stopped talking.
In theory, Francine had plenty of money.
Amy, however, suspected something was amiss.
Yet a lawyer was too expensive, and she doubted social service agencies could help.
So she communicated her concerns to Randy via his attorney and left it at that.
Payments to that account, Amy concluded, were coming from her mothers trust account.
One expenditure: $9,100 to a luxury-car dealer.
Checks made out to Randys wife totaled $35,000.
I wasnt shocked, Amy says.
Contacted for this article, Randy said he is 14 years sober.
He wrote, I was under some financial pressures that I was too weak to stand up to.
The intention was always that the money would be returned from future realized gains.
In the end, he got away with it.
Prosecutors in Maryland passed as well, suggesting Francine wouldnt be able to fly east to testify.
The FBI said no, too.
Amy could not afford to file a civil suit against her brother.
He is dead to me, she says.
How can you do that steal from your mother for luxuries?
Eventually, Francine had to leave the assisted living facility.
Care was barely adequate.
Francine died in February 2016, at age 99.
None of us would want to live like that, Amy says.
