Senior Swindles Increase, Often Perpetrated by Elderly Scammers

Mara Krotec Baginski, a gerontological social worker, said her parents still receive phone calls looking for her grandfather to tell him he’s won a sweepstakes, even though he’s been in an assisted living facility since July 2008 because of advanced Alzheimer’s.

The scammers have targeted Baginski’s grandfather, a retired physician, since 2003, calling or sending mailers requesting checks for $25 in exchange for a $25 million prize.