Lifestyle

5 Signs Your Aging Parent Is Being Financially Exploited

By Erica Coleman · July 17, 2026

The money disappears gradually. That’s what makes it so hard to catch.

Elder financial exploitation rarely announces itself. It doesn’t arrive as a dramatic theft or a single large withdrawal. It arrives as a new friend who starts accompanying your parent to the bank, a caregiver who seems to handle the bills, a cousin who’s suddenly spending more time at the house. By the time a family realizes what’s been happening, months or years of damage have already been done.

The scale is staggering. According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center report, Americans age 60 and older reported losses of $7.7 billion from fraud last year — a 59% jump from the year before, and the largest dollar loss of any age group the FBI tracks. The average reported loss for an older victim exceeded $38,000. At least 12,400 older Americans lost $100,000 or more to a single scheme.

And those are only the cases that get reported. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates that elder financial exploitation is dramatically underreported, with most incidents never reaching law enforcement. Here’s what to watch for.

Unexplained withdrawals or changes to accounts. The clearest financial signal is money moving without explanation — unusual ATM withdrawals, new transfers to unfamiliar accounts, or a sudden shift in how bills are being paid. If your parent previously handled finances independently and suddenly can’t account for where money went, or defers to someone else to explain it, that’s worth a direct conversation with the bank. Most banks now have elder financial exploitation specialists on staff specifically for situations like this.

A new person who controls access. A caregiver, neighbor, romantic interest, or even a family member who starts intercepting phone calls, answering questions on your parent’s behalf, or making excuses for why they can’t speak to you privately is a significant warning sign. Financial exploitation often involves deliberate isolation — cutting off the victim from family members who might notice something wrong.

Sudden changes to legal documents. A will that’s recently been updated. A power of attorney that’s been newly granted. A bank account that’s been converted to joint ownership with someone the family doesn’t know well. The CFPB specifically flags unexpected changes to beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, and property deeds as red flags that warrant immediate attention, because these documents can transfer assets out of a family’s reach quickly and legally.

Unpaid bills despite adequate income. If your parent has reliable income from Social Security, a pension, or retirement accounts, and starts receiving shut-off notices or falling behind on regular bills, that’s a sign money is leaving the household through a channel that isn’t going toward household expenses. The money is going somewhere — and the question is where.

Unusual purchases or gifts. Large purchases that don’t make sense for your parent’s life — expensive electronics, gift cards, wire transfers to people they’ve met online, donations to organizations they’ve never mentioned — can indicate either a scam or someone using their money or their card. Older adults are disproportionately targeted by romance scams, grandparent scams, tech support scams, and government impersonation schemes precisely because they tend to answer phones, trust authority figures, and have accumulated savings.

The most common perpetrators are not strangers. They’re caregivers, neighbors, and family members — people with ongoing access to the victim’s home, finances, and daily life. That’s what makes financial exploitation so difficult for families to confront even after they recognize it: the person doing it is often someone the parent trusts and the family also knows.

If you suspect something is happening, the first call is to Adult Protective Services in your parent’s state — every state has one. The second is to your parent’s bank. The third, if the situation warrants it, is to local law enforcement or your district attorney’s office, where financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult is prosecutable as a crime in most states.

The conversation with your parent may be the hardest part. It’s also the most important one to have.