Assemblyman Clyde Vanel, D-Queens Village, is pictured the state Assembly Science & Technology Committee at the University at Buffalo National AI Institute of Exceptional Education in July.

New legislation introduced in the state Legislature would make it a felony to steal from the elderly.

Assemblyman Clyde Vanel, D-Queens Village, has introduced legislation (A.10689) that will elevate any misdemeanor larceny offense or misdemeanor criminal possession of stolen property in which the person knows the victim is over the age of 60 to at least a class E felony, with all felony charges against a senior citizen moving one category higher. The bill could be placed on the legislative agenda when the state Legislature begins its next session in January.

“Criminals will typically prey upon the elderly in the commission of their frauds and scams. According to the NYS Department of Financial Services, the cost of elder financial exploitation is estimated to be as much as $1.5 billion per year,” Vanel wrote in his legislative justification. “The elderly are normally targeted because of certain factors that are unique to a large number of elderly persons, like cognitive and physical decline, isolation, larger monetary savings and a lesser understanding of new technology.”

Financial exploitation – including scams and other fraud tactics that target older adults – is the most common form of elder abuse. AARP estimates that financial exploitation costs victims 60 and older an astonishing $28.3 billion annually. The average victim of elder fraud lost $33,915 due to these crimes, according to data released earlier this year by the state Department of State.

The state Office for the Aging has also developed a new Don’t Get Scammed guide which provides information about scams including red flags, common scam types and tactics, and resources to help. For more information, call the non-emergency helpline at 844-746-6905 and the Adult Protective Services hotline at 1-844-697-3505 to report abuse.

Online and telephone rackets have become so commonplace that law enforcement agencies and adult protective services don’t have the resources to keep up.

“It’s a little bit like drinking from a fire hose,” said Brady Finta, a former FBI agent who supervised elder fraud investigations, told an Associated Press reported earlier this year. “There’s just so much of it, logistically and reasonably, it’s almost impossible to overcome right now.”

Grifts also can be difficult to investigate, particularly ones that originate overseas, with stolen funds quickly converted into hard-to-track cryptocurrency or siphoned into foreign bank accounts. Some police departments don’t take financial scams as seriously as other crime and victims wind up discouraged and demoralized, according to Paul Greenwood, who spent 22 years prosecuting elder financial abuse cases in San Diego.

“There’s a lot of law enforcement who think that because a victim sends money voluntarily through gift cards or through wire transfers, or for buying crypto, that they’re actually engaging in a consensual transaction,” said Greenwood, who travels the country teaching police how to spot fraud. “And that is a big mistake because it’s not. It’s not consensual. They’ve been defrauded.”

Federal prosecutors typically don’t get involved unless the fraud reaches a certain dollar amount, Greenwood said.

“The fact is, criminals should not get a free pass to pick and choose the victims that they think will have a higher likelihood of falling for their scams. If they have the option to choose their victims based on age, then the state should have the option to prosecute them based on the victim’s age too,” Vanel wrote.