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Editor's note: The News & Record agreed not to use the full name of the victim featured in this story, at her request, to protect her from future abuse.





GREENSBORO — Retirement had been good to May.


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She inherited her mother's house in Greensboro and sold her own. She took cruises with friends and traveled to Hawaii.


But then May, 76, fell into a trap that increasingly is snaring her generation.


A telemarketing scam.


May gave away her $100,000 life savings before realizing the "big prize" she was promised didn't exist.


Studies show that elder abuse, like child abuse and sexual abuse, often goes undetected or unreported.


And signs point to an increase in elder abuse, especially financial exploitation — including telemarketing scams and caretakers and family members stealing money or property.


A 1999 National Consumers League report estimated that the elderly made up 56 percent to 80 percent of intended telemarketing fraud victims. A 2006 report from an assistant North Carolina attorney general put that figure at close to 90 percent.


Rockingham County saw calls to the elder services program at its domestic violence shelter increase sevenfold from 2001 to 2007. Many of those calls involved financial crimes.


Leaf through civil filings in Guilford County Superior Court, and you'll find many such crimes.


There's the daughter who successfully fought to annul her 80-year-old father's marriage to a woman half his age. But not before the woman managed to get him to sign over some of his property to both of their names.


And the three siblings who are suing their brother over the care of their mother and her assets. They allege that the brother convinced their 84-year-old mother to sign over property to him, including a High Point condo, and change her will to name him and his wife beneficiaries of half of her estate.


Elder advocates fear what such statistics and cases mean for the future. A second wave of baby boomers will reach their twilight years within the next two decades. In North Carolina, the elder population will double, reaching about 2.8 million in that time.


But, advocates argue, resources to protect elders are not keeping pace with this growing population or the problems it faces.


Getting scammed


Telemarketing scams alone bilk $40 billion each year from consumers of all educational and economic backgrounds, according to the AARP.


But seniors are a prime target, studies show.


May got pulled in last September when the call came that she'd won a major prize from "Publisher's." She thought it was a legitimate call from Publishers Clearing House, the Greensboro resident says.


In Guilford County, 18 percent of reports to Adult Protective Services last fiscal year involved financial exploitation.


Abuse accounts for another 18 percent of Guilford's reports, while self- and caretaker neglect make up the majority, records show.


But it is the rising attack on seniors' financial resources that troubles Felissa Ferrell , program manager for Adult, Prevention and Human Services in Rockingham County's Department of Social Services . She turned over five cases to law enforcement in one week last month, Ferrell says.


"It's very easy when you see a disabled person or elderly person ... it's easy to take advantage of them," she says.


For May, the calls came several times a day, at all hours. They told her to send money for fees and taxes to Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica and New York. Over the course of three months May depleted her life savings in pursuit of an elusive prize.


"People don't believe it," May says. "But they can put a spell on you."


She had worked two jobs for most of her life, saving her money for retirement.


Besides traveling, she also liked to make weekend dinners for a group of elderly women, some of whom were friends of her mother.


But May can't afford any of that now.


She lives off Social Security and a small amount of money she makes as a companion to an older, less mobile friend.


She cries. Frets over bills. But mostly she fumes.


"Nobody," May says, "is there to protect us."


She says the police told her they couldn't help because it is out of their jurisdiction. She's waiting to see what help, if any, the state Attorney General's Office can provide. And she's working with AARP to see what it can do.


She wonders why the government doesn't help scam victims the way it helps victims of credit card fraud.


"We worked hard for our money," May says. "Why should we be a victim?"


More potential victims


Snowbirds don't all flock to Florida to retire.


Many end up in the Tar Heel state, which saw its elderly population grow 20.5 percent between 1990 and 2000 — the last two census years.


During the same time, the national growth rate averaged 12 percent.


And that number is expected to grow even more as the second wave of baby boomers comes of age. Boomers are the generation born from 1946 to 1964.


Through 2010, North Carolina's overall population age 65 and older will remain stable, according to a report by the state Division of Aging and Adult Services. But the group age 85 and older will grow 39 percent.


By 2030, the youngest of the baby boomers will reach age 66. That surge will swell the ranks of seniors. By 2030, they will make up a larger part of the population than that of youth 17 and younger in the majority of North Carolina's counties, the report shows.


Marlene Pruitt already sees more elderly victims at Help Inc., Rockingham County's domestic violence shelter. She sees everything from physical abuse to a rising number of financial exploitation victims.


The elder services program she runs saw 50 clients in 2001. Last year, that number climbed to about 350.


"We're older. We're living longer," Pruitt says. "Unfortunately, with that the crime has escalated."


Why target seniors?


"Most of us, all our life, have been taught to trust," says Thelma Dunman, 92, of Greensboro.


Not anymore.


Information about elder abuse and scams taught her to shred mail and documents before throwing them out, carry the bare minimum in her pocketbook and hang up on unknown callers. She recently attended a seminar on scams targeting the elderly.


At her age, it's a bitter lesson to learn.


"I tell you," Dunman says, "they prey on people like us."


Often seniors can be susceptible because they're dealing with medical issues, such as dementia or medication, that cloud their judgment, says Bob Boyd of Senior Resources of Guilford.


Boyd, an information and assistance specialist, started a program at Senior Resources to teach seniors like Dunman about the many scams that target the elderly.


"It's a serious matter, and it's not getting any better," Boyd says. "It's like open season on seniors."


Determining the scope of the problem is difficult because seniors rarely report being scammed or abused for a variety of reasons, experts say.


They may fear reprisal or being locked away in a nursing home. They may feel embarrassed. Sometimes, they've lived so long with someone that they see life with abuse as better than life on their own at their age, Pruitt says.


Agencies and nonprofits can be limited in helping elders. If an elder is mentally competent and won't press charges, then allegations of abuse can go unpunished.


"We're all limited as to how much we can do," Pruitt says. "They're (Adult Protective Services) limited by law, and we're limited by funding."


Finding help


In December 2005 two new laws became effective in North Carolina to specifically deal with exploitation of elders.


But elder advocates say they also need more money for programs to help victims. And they want better reporting systems to track neglect, abuse and exploitation.


Legislators have introduced an "Elder Justice Act" in Congress several times since 2002 to address some of those issues. The latest versions sit frozen in subcommittees of both the House and Senate.


If passed, those laws would include such changes as providing grants to Adult Protective Services, requiring long-term facilities that get federal money to report any suspicion of crime in their facilities, and establishing an advisory board.


Advocates hope similar proposals brought up in North Carolina's legislature last year will be reintroduced.


But any changes in law at this point likely will be too late for May. While she waits to see if the attorney general can help, the phone calls continue to come.


Even after changing her phone service once and her number three times.


Just the other day, a man called claiming to be with the FBI. He tells May to not be lazy and return his call because he can help her get her money back. His voice sounds Jamaican, just like the dozens of calls she received before.


The callers reversed those charges, leaving May with a phone bill of nearly $3,000.


"If somebody uses us as a tool, we should get paid back," May says in a tight voice, eyes glistening with tears. "Because it was thieving. We didn't give it to them, they took it."


"And they're laughing," she says, the tears finally escaping. "And we're crying."

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com