Bad business may be booming for scammers as the baby boomer generation heads toward retirement. USA Today reports that the group that’s turning 60 this year can expect to be tempted and bombarded with all sorts of financial scams designed to fill them with promises of financial security when all they’ll do is empty the pockets of their victims. According to Consumer Action, while baby boomers represent 15% of the population, 30% of them are victims of fraud not only through estate-planning seminars but also through the sales of equity-index annuities, unregistered securities and promissory notes, as well as lotteries.
“It’s the topic of the next few decades: senior investments and senior fraud,” Patricia Struck, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, told USA Today.
The ever-growing crop of free seminars and not-so-free offers is catching the attention of regulators, says the paper, and senior-citizen groups, such as AARP, are holding seminars to educate their audience on how to spot and avoid fraud.