HONOLULU (KHON2) — The world is changing fast and that can make it hard for our kupuna to keep up, especially when it comes to scams.
A series of workshops is coming to Hawaii to help seniors and their families spot fraud and fight back.
“What keeps me awake sometimes is the ways in which these scammers, these fraudsters are finding innovative ways to take advantage of older adults,” said Paul Greenwood, AARP elder fraud expert.
Greenwood is a former prosecutor who worked in elder abuse. He said AI-driven scams have been increasing, especially in the last nine months.
According to AARP, people overestimate their ability to detect AI-driven fraud.
“The problem has now become that the fraudsters are now able to take photographs of known people, maybe known relatives and superimpose those photographs into a jail setting,” he said.
“And I know how that’s going to be used by the fraudsters who are sending by text or by email to a relative who’s now convinced that their grandson is locked up in a foreign jail somewhere and needs desperate bail money to get them out quickly.”
They can also use technology to recreate someone’s voice.
He’s coming to Hawaii May 12 through May 16 to help educate kupuna about how to fight fraud with seminars on the Big Island, Oahu, Maui and Kauai.
He will give his top 20 tips to help prevent becoming a victim.
“I base these tips on real cases that I’ve prosecuted over 22 years involving older adults,” said Greenwood.
Greenwood hopes that education can also persuade seniors to report fraud that happens to them to authorities, as only about 20% do so. Another 57% haven’t warned others.
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“We’ve got to overcome this fear that by coming forward and sharing that we’ve become a victim, that somehow we’re going to lose our independence. We’re not interested in taking the independence away from a victim, in fact, we want to support victims, and the earlier a report is made the better the opportunity may be to recover some of the money.”