Fleecing the elderly

This is a good insightful series of articles in Sunday Star Times that we recommend you read.

Door-to-door scammers are roaming the Waikato using dodgy goods and services to fleece unsuspecting victims of thousands of dollars.

And consumer watchdogs say "toothless" legislation is letting them and others get away with dozens of scams.

Just this week, an 83-year old Ngaruawahia woman was left to pay for shonky work after "gypsies", believed to be in the country on work visas, knocked on her door offering to reseal her driveway.
Door-to-door salesmen fleecing unsuspecting
Befriended by a tradesman, an elderly woman drew around $70,000 in cash over a period of weeks from her bank to give to the man who called her "Nana".

He'd been doing some painting work for her, but nobody realised what was going on in a case of what has come to be known as financial "elder abuse", the exploitation of older, vulnerable people, often by those they have come to trust.

It is a national shame that some claim is becoming an epidemic problem.

The old woman's story had a happy-ish ending when Age Concern, which helps elderly people in around 1000 cases of similar abuse each year, was alerted. The police were involved and the woman's bank, BNZ, decided to make a voluntary payment to her of $45,000.
New Zealand's hidden shame