Back to News

Reflections from SIFMA and NAPSA’s World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Webinar: Addressing the Financial Exploitation of Older Adults

Each year on June 15, The United Nations recognizes World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEADD) as an opportunity to shed light on the global impact of elder abuse. To mark the occasion, SIFMA partnered with the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA) to co-host a webinar on June 17 focused on a critical and growing threat: the financial exploitation of older adults through fraud, scams, and abuse.

By 2030, seniors aged 65 and over will make up 18% of the U.S. population. Yet this growing demographic faces increasing threats to their financial security. According to the FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Complaint Center report, adults over the age of 60 reported losing an estimated $4.9 billion in 2023 to financial frauds and scams, while only about one in 44 cases is ever reported to authorities. These alarming statistics highlight the urgent need for continued awareness, vigilance, and coordinated action, especially as emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) create new opportunities for financial exploitation.

At SIFMA, we believe that safeguarding senior investors is a shared responsibility – one that spans the financial services industry, policymakers, law enforcement, caregivers, and advocates. Our industry serves millions of older Americans who have worked hard to build their savings and deserve to age with dignity and security, without the pervasive threat of falling victim to frauds and scams. Through collaboration with our members, researchers, federal and state officials, and partners like NAPSA and EverSafe and their participation in the webinar, we remain committed to protecting this vulnerable population.

As part of that commitment, SIFMA, alongside member firms and partners, developed  a Senior Investor Protection Toolkit, available for free on our website. This comprehensive resource provides tools and educational materials to help older investors safeguard their finances.

The WEADD webinar provided a forum to delve deeper into these issues, with experts across industry sharing insights, strategies, and solutions to protect senior investors.

Watch my opening remarks from the webinar here.

Liz Podnieks, Professor of English, Toronto Metropolitan University

The program opened with remarks from Professor Liz Podnieks of Toronto Metropolitan University. A passionate scholar and advocate whose work focuses on aging, caregiving, and social change, Professor Podnieks paid tribute to her mother, Dr. Elizabeth Podnieks – a trailblazer in the global movement to end elder abuse and a founding force behind World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Her reflections served as an important reminder of the impact one person’s vision can have on sparking global change.

Tune into Liz’s full remarks here.

The webinar was headlined by two compelling panel discussions, each offering expert perspectives on different dimensions of elder financial exploitation and how to confront them.

Panel I: Recognizing Undue Influence and Identifying Solutions

This first panel examined how undue influence operates in financial abuse cases and how professionals across sectors can better identify and intervene. Moderated by Jennifer Spoeri, Executive Director of NAPSA, the discussion featured:

  • Candace Heisler, Attorney at Heisler and Associates and retired Assistant District Attorney for San Francisco
  • Tara Ambrose, Senior Financial Fraud Ombudsperson, Enforcement Division, Minnesota Department of Commerce

The panel opened with a powerful real-world case study presented by Tara Ambrose involving “Jane,” a widow in her seventies who fell victim to a trusted family friend named “Dave.” The case began when Jane’s legitimate financial advisor noticed red flags: a $50,000 check that failed to clear, made payable to an unfamiliar LLC, along with two other recent checks to the same entity. When the advisor called Jane to inquire, she explained that Dave, whom she believed to be her new financial advisor, was investing the money on her behalf for better performance.

Candace Heisler provided crucial legal context, emphasizing that undue influence is a process that unfolds over time. Perpetrators like Dave typically groom their victims by leveraging trust, technical knowledge, and the victim’s vulnerabilities, such as loneliness, grief, or financial naivety. In Jane’s case, Dave had cultivated trust through befriending, caregiving, and deception about his professional credentials.

The case ultimately took two years to build, requiring extensive evidence gathering, including financial records, medical assessments, interviews, and historical spending analysis. Dave was initially charged with several felonies, but as news of his arrest spread, two dozen additional victims came forward. By the time the case went to trial, Dave, who was surprisingly in his eighties, faced more than a dozen felony charges including theft and money laundering, and the judge sentenced Dave to 15 years in prison, citing the predatory nature of his use of undue influence.

The panel concluded with several key lessons learned from Jane’s case:

  • Training is needed: Law enforcement, prosecutors, and Adult Protective Services (APS) must be better educated to identify undue influence and related crimes.
  • Multidisciplinary collaboration is vital: Financial institutions, APS, law enforcement, and community partners must work together.
  • Victim support matters: Immediate and ongoing needs (emotional and financial in particular) of victims must be addressed, especially since investigations can be lengthy.
  • Awareness of perpetrator profiles: Perpetrators may not fit stereotypes; in this case, Dave’s age aided his deception.

Replay the full panel discussion here.

Panel II: Artificial Intelligence – How to Use It to Help Prevent Fraud, and How It Is Being Used to Scam

This second forward-looking panel explored the dual-edged role of artificial intelligence: both as a tool to help prevent financial fraud and as a growing threat when misused by scammers. Moderated by Howard Tischler, Co-Founder and CEO of EverSafe, the panel included:

  • Theo Lau, Founder, Unconventional Ventures
  • Bismarck Prado, Director of Fraud & Senior Investor Protection, Legal and Risk, Commonwealth Financial Network

Theo Lau opened by walking through the history of AI, explaining that while artificial intelligence has existed since the 1940s, recent advances in generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT have made sophisticated scam tools accessible to the public. She provided a striking demonstration of deepfake technology’s capabilities by showing how a convincing fake video could be generated from uploading just a single photograph, a process that took only about a minute to complete. This live demonstration underscored her warning that such easily accessible tools make scams far more believable and difficult to detect.

Bismarck Prado discussed how AI systems fall into three distinct categories. First is weak AI, which can only simulate human behavior for very specific tasks. The next two categories are still theoretical: strong AI, which would mimic human behavior and learn to solve complex problems, and artificial super intelligence, where AI becomes self-aware and develops its own emotions, beliefs, and desires, potentially ascending beyond human intelligence. Most current applications fall into the weak AI category, including machine learning for transaction monitoring, bots for repetitive tasks, and generative AI that processes massive datasets to create human-quality text and videos through large language models.

Prado outlined how fraudsters are weaponizing these AI tools to create fake identification documents, conduct sophisticated spear phishing campaigns, and manipulate victims with realistic voice and video impersonations. However, Prado also offered practical advice for detecting deepfakes, encouraging people to watch for unnatural facial movements, unusual lighting, robotic-sounding audio, and background anomalies.

The panel also highlighted AI’s powerful potential for fraud prevention. Prado discussed how Amazon has redesigned its call center authorization process using real-time voice authentication that identifies unique voice characteristics, while Google has implemented AI-powered scam detection in both web browsers and Android phones. Lau shared an example from an Australian bank that uses machine learning to detect potential financial abuse in digital payment notes, a system so successful that the bank is sharing their models for free with institutions worldwide.

Both speakers emphasized several key takeaways for addressing AI-driven fraud:

  • AI is a double-edged sword: It enables more convincing scams but also provides powerful tools for detection and prevention
  • Education and awareness are vital: Both professionals and consumers must stay informed about evolving threats
  • Human oversight matters: Technology must be paired with empathy and critical thinking to protect vulnerable populations

View the full second panel here.

Looking Ahead

The webinar reinforced a central truth: protecting older adults from financial exploitation is a complex, rapidly evolving challenge – one that requires coordination and collaboration across financial services, adult protective services, law enforcement, regulators, legislators, and communities.

At SIFMA, we are proud to be part of this vital work. We extend our sincere thanks to all the speakers and participants who contributed to the event, and especially to our members, partners, and NAPSA for their continued leadership.

Author

Lisa Bleier, Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, Head of Wealth Management, Retirement, and State Government Relations, SIFMA

Related Resources

More News