OLDER PEOPLE AND CONSUMER FRAUD.pdfVIP

AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF CRIMINOLOGY OLDER PEOPLE AND CONSUMER FRAUD Dr Adam Graycar Director, Australian Institute of Criminology and Marianne James Australian Institute of Criminology Paper presented at the th 4 National Outlook Symposium on Crime in Australia, New Crimes or New Responses convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology and held in Canberra 21-22 June 2001 People aged 65 years and over have the lowest rates of crime victimisation when compared with other age-groups and with the rest of the population. This is due to the nature of the social relationships and activities of older people. Consumer fraud is an important component of older people’s experiences with crime. Among older Australians, consumer fraud is 2.2 times more prevalent than assault, which is the most common of the violent offences. This contrasts with younger persons, among whom fraud is as common as assault (Carcach, Graycar and Muscat 2001). This paper will report data from a large AIC survey of older persons’ criminal victimisation. It will focus particularly on the risks that older people face in terms of their vulnerability to acts of consumer fraud. In Australia at the present time there are approximately 2.3 million people or 12 per cent of the population aged 65 years and over. What is Fraud? Essentially fraud refers to consumer victimisation which may occur when someone is selling something or delivering a service. It includes such areas as commercial transactions (telemarketing, Internet sales, door to door sales, mail orders); home repairs and home construction; buying and servicing vehicles; and financial transactions (cheques bouncing or problems with credit card purchases, health care products an