Elderly Man Conned Out of $109,000 in Sophisticated Scam

Scammers are increasingly targeting the elderly, with little to no protection in place to prevent these crimes. A recent incident in Blairsville, Georgia, highlights the severity of the issue. A 91-year-old man, Loris Sinanian, was conned out of over $109,000 by a scammer posing as an old friend.

The scammer gained remote access to Sinanian's computer and made it appear as if he had accidentally sent Sinanian $100,000 instead of $100. Over the course of 10 days, the scammer persuaded Sinanian to withdraw $109,000 in cash from his bank accounts, stuff the cash into boxes of books, and ship the boxes to an unknown address in New York.

Sinanian expressed regret for his actions, stating, "I don’t want to use profanities, but I was very unhappy I was stupid enough to continue."

Debra Stokes, executive director of the Georgia Council on Aging, a state-funded senior advocacy group, revealed that there are hundreds of similar cases across the county and thousands of reported cases statewide each year.

The FBI's 2023 Elder Fraud Report indicated that elders had lost $3.4 billion to scams alone, though the true scope of the problem is likely much larger. In another recent case, an 85-year-old woman's life savings of $1.4 million were drained by fraudsters posing as JPMorgan and the US government. Despite the significant loss, JPMorgan refused to reimburse her.

Last year, Françoise Schorosch fell victim to the "Hi dad" scheme, where scammers pose as an elderly person's grandchild asking for help. In Schorosch's case, hackers accessed her emails while she was in the process of buying her first home. By using Schorosch's email address with a slight modification, the fraudsters were able to contact her dad without raising suspicion and ultimately convinced him to wire €7,000 to a Nationwide bank account.