Falling For Phone Scams Could Be Early Sign Of Dementia, Study Says

(CNN) — The woman lives alone, but she’s rarely lonely. Friends stop by most mornings, and a niece looks in weekly. Still, most of her afternoons and evenings are spent sitting in her chair, looking at the clouds and sky through a picture window. The caller sounded nice. “Good afternoon,” he said in a cheery voice, asking whether he could use her first name. She couldn’t remember entering the sweepstakes, but he assured her that she had and that it didn’t matter: What matters, he said, is that she’d won. “And what you’ve won is a unique investment opportunity,” he explained. If she sent $200, she’d receive $2,000 in return — 10 times return on investment. “She transferred $200 from her bank to them, and it just kept escalating, and they started calling her daily,” said Dr. Angela Sanford, who practices geriatric medicine at St. Louis University Hospital. “She was probably $10,000 or $12,000 in before the niece became aware.” Sanford’s patient, who was later diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, had not scored “super low” on memory tests, she said: The problem in her brain affected not the patient’s ability to remember but her ability to judge. Every year, $3 billion is stolen or defrauded from millions of seniors, according to the US Department of Justice. Sometimes, good judgment amounts to hanging up the phone: Older adults who find it difficult to end...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health News CNN Dementia Scams Source Type: news