Survey says senior victims of financial scams lose $140,000

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Bogus financial schemes and bad advice are causing seniors to lose a lot of money.

A new survey from the nonprofit group Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards reports the average senior citizen victimized by financial abuse loses more than $140,000.

One of the most common scams is the "free lunch" seminar. These seminars are typically marketed as educational presentations and come with a free meal. Many times, though, it is a sales pitch for investment products that come with misleading or fraudulent claims, experts say.

Another scam can find seniors receiving unsolicited pitches for low cost, high yield investments.

The elderly are also often overcharged for medical expenses or fall prey to reverse mortgage scams.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards gathered this information from more than 2,600 financial planners.

The Missouri Attorney General’s office home repair fraud, door to door sales and telemarketing fraud. You can find more about that and what you can do to protect yourself or an aging loved one at ago.mo.gov .