Senior Citizens, Low-Income Earners The Targets Of New Tax Scam: IRS

It's tax season -- which means that scammers are once again trying to rip off the elderly.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice on Monday warning of a new piece of financial fraud that's making the rounds. According to the IRS, the fraud informs taxpayers that they might be eligible for a refund under the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which awards tax rebates to people paying college tuition expenses.

While the American Opportunity Tax Credit is real, the offers themselves can be bogus, the IRS warns. Scammers hope people, even those that haven't paid a dime for college tuition in decades, will pay filing fees in order to claim the nonexistent refund. Indeed, the IRS says the scam especially targets senior citizens and people with very low incomes.

That makes it just part of a growing industry of financial fraud directed toward older Americans -- a practice that costs seniors about $2.9 billion a year, according to a report last June from the insurance company MetLife. It's only getting worse: the cost of financial fraud among seniors was 12 percent higher in 2010 than it was two years earlier.

Scammers use a number of different approaches to try to get into senior pockets. They might claim to be calling from the IRS or the Social Security Administration. Sometimes they even pretend to be a grandchild who needs money.

Criminals have also been known to harvest Social Security information from medical centers and other places that handle large numbers of elderly clients, according to AARP Bulletin. A scamster can bribe an employee at one of these facilities for a list of Social Security numbers, then file a series of fake tax returns and collect the refunds that rightfully belong to other people.

With the weak economy leaving more seniors in financially precarious positions, fraud directed at older Americans has the potential to do real damage. Over 9 million seniors say they're struggling just to afford basic costs like food, housing and medical care, according to a study released last week by the nonprofit group Wider Opportunities for Women.

Comments

[KarmaPatrol]

12:01 PM on 03/06/2012

File your taxes, then take a long vacation in Baja or New Zealand until April 15, with your cell phone off. Aren't you supposed to be retired anyways? There was a recent story showing many people have a diminished capability for finances after age, so just leave before the silly season. Hmmmm. Might be a good retirement goal. Sun and senoritas (not senioritas)...

[KarmaPatrol]

12:05 PM on 03/06/2012

Age 55. Oops. Getting old but not near 55 yet. Oh-uh....

[fortressfountain]

10:54 AM on 03/06/2012

My aunt was scammed by the warrinty people and would not listen to others. She thought because she drove a BMW the coverage was necessary and she would not be scammed.
Haa, people do not understand how different things are now-in their day the business owners and corporations were honest and valued customers.

[kamact]

09:08 PM on 03/05/2012

Hang the scammers,...good solution,...then go get the TBTF banksters,....

[zunklives]

07:29 PM on 03/05/2012

Another huge scam these days that is targeting seniors is the "warranty" scam, they get your info from the dmv records or thru other means and then call you, or dump a crap load of mail in your box, claiming that your warranty has expired. These "scammers" called my 80 year old grandmother, the day after my grandfather passed, telling her that the warranty on their truck had expired, LIE #1, then went on to say they were agents working for GM, LIE#2, and that they were contacted by the dealership where the vehicle was purchased, to let the customer know the warranty had expired, and to offer "official" GM warranty LIE#3. The sad part about this? is they are actually a warranty sales group who sells for a warranty company, I called hundreds of times to tell them to cancel, as the warranty was STILL in effect(the origianal) and they always gave me the whole "he is not in" or let me transfer you to a dial tone, finally I found out thru the net who they were hawking the warranties for, and contacted them first hand, they were nice, and "seemed" unaware of this practice, and said they would no longer use that "group" for their sales anymore, I am not so sure, they are telling the truth either, but they did in fact refund the money, after numerous hours and days spent on the phone getting the run around

[kimhoulian]

09:58 PM on 03/05/2012

Thanks for the information