06-22-2022 Primetime Livnig - Flipbook - Page 20
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A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, June 22, 2022
FINANCIAL WELLNESS
Staying
financially safe
Scams are rampant but
there are ways to protect
yourself
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
T
he first hint of one of the truly awful financial scams came in Dan Rodricks’
column in the Baltimore Sun on Feb. 8, 2022. He titled it “a ‘special place in
hell’ for the perpetrators of elder fraud,” as he told the story of an 88-year-old
woman who was bilked out of $175,000, 85% of her money.
The victim had an unfortunate habit of
signing a few blank checks to give to those
who ran errands for her. Someone got hold
of a check, made it out to a Chinese company, and then cashed it. At the time all this
happened, she resided in an assisted living
community; since losing the money, she can
no longer afford it and resides with a niece.
Neither of the banks involved, the one
where she had an account that accepted the
check nor the one who forwarded the money
to the scammer, have taken any responsibility. They didn’t look at her account. They
didn’t see the disparity in the writing on the
checks. They just didn’t do anything except
abet the con artists.
The average person cannot comprehend
the sheer amount of data that flows through
a bank daily, so the bank is dependent on
algorithms to signal when something is off.
Small banks offer more protection.
Nicholas C. Bonadio, partner in the Keilty
Bonadio law firm (www.kblitigation.com),
took on the case. “The saddest part of this
whole debacle was if just one person – one
person – had looked at the check or even
her bank account, they would have known
it was fraud. Most of the checks she wrote
were around $20.”
In the September 2021 issue of Prime
Time Living, I wrote an article about the Bank
of Glen Burnie, which viewed as its special
mandate to protect customers from scams
and fraud. At the same time, the Maryland
Department of Aging had in place Project
S.A.F.E. (Stop Adult Financial Exploitation),
“an informal public/private coalition of 18
different organizations that share a common
goal of preventing and remedying financial
exploitation of vulnerable adults.”
Project S.A.F.E. specified who is a
Mandatory Reporter of suspected fraud: “If
you are a health care professional, social
worker, police officer, or an employee of a
health care facility or financial institution,
you are a mandatory reporter of suspected
exploitation of elders or vulnerable adults.
Report in accordance with your professional
obligations. If you are unsure to whom you
must report suspected exploitation, ask your
supervisor.”
That’s why when I read Rodricks’ column,
I was horrified. Weren’t financial institutions
mandatory reporters?
“No, it was voluntary,” says Bonadio.
“The state did finally pass a law, the SAFE
Act, based on Project S.A.F.E., that took
effect on Oct. 1, 2021, but financial institutions are exempt. Why should they be
exempted? Banks are in the best position
to prevent the most fraud and to develop
technology to protect vulnerable adults. So,
excluding them is a missed opportunity. And
it increases the likelihood that the person
who committed the crime against you won’t
be brought to justice.”
Bonadio has devoted his career to representing individuals and families in complex
civil cases involving catastrophic injuries
and death. He specializes in product liability,
toxic exposure and medical malpractice.
This case was different something he didn’t
usually tackle. He did it because he wanted
to make sure this woman had good representation.
“I’ve filed complaints with the U.S.
Department of the Treasury,” Bonadio
explains, “but it’s doubtful they can do anything. The fine print in the standard banking
agreement means we’re likely limited to
arbitration against PNC, which is our next
step. What’s sad is when you open a bank
account, all the fine print that no one ever
reads limits your rights. You do have an
opportunity to opt-out, but you go through
all kinds of hoops to do that.”
The question many of us ask is, “how
do we protect ourselves and our loved
ones?” New scams are being invented and
executed daily with new ways to take our
money. If you think you’re immune, you’re
wrong. To quote Brian Frosh, attorney general of Maryland, “When we figure out a way
to build a 10-foot wall, these crooks find an
11-foot ladder.”
“The best way to protect people is
to take them off the financial grid, so to
speak,” Bonadio points out. “Take their
checks away. A high percent of fraud is via
checks. Ask a family member to look out for
you. Even the telephone can cause problems. Since a lot of people live alone, when
the phone rings, they answer it because
they want some human interaction. How do
you tell them to stop or that they should be
wary of unknown callers?”
Smart people are getting fooled every
day. One of the tried-and-true scams is to
pose as a debt collector, a version of which
is to threaten to cut off your electricity in 30
minutes. You immediately panic. You should
just hang up. Legitimate callers leave voice
messages.
Encourage people to ask questions and
sound dumb. Ask if it sounds right. Ask to
call them back. They can’t provide a number
because they are cloning legitimate phone
numbers or using robo-dialers. You can recognize this by the lag time between answer-
Financially safe,
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