In this season of giving, it’s probably no surprise that older adults are even more vulnerable than usual to giving away (or being scammed out of) their hard-earned money- and not just because they’re generous gift-givers. As Dr. Kathleen Wilber, Director of the Secure Old Age Lab at the University of Southern California makes clear, the holidays are a prime time for financial abuse of older adults, which by the way is most often perpetrated by unscrupulous family members.

Even those of us who pride ourselves on being financially sophisticated and savvy are not immune from being the victims of financial fraud. In fact, it now appears that impaired financial decision-making can be an early, pre-diagnosis sign of dementia, one that not only hints at cognitive problems down the road but that can also leave us more vulnerable to financial exploitation before anyone can realize what’s happening. As Dr. Eric Chess, Director of the Financial Security and Cognitive Health Initiative at the University of Denver’s Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging recently stated, “The first clinical markers of cognitive decline are found not in the brain but in the bank account.” As such, banking systems are now being developed to prevent financial fraud. A recent article in Next Avenue highlights the value of bank training programs such as AARP’s BankSafe Elder Fraud Prevention Program which provides bank employee training to detect financial red flags that suggest fraud or exploitation. One of the interesting findings thus far has been that you don’t need to be wealthy to be the victim of financial fraud. Scammers appear to be equally willing to defraud you if you have $1 thousand or $1 million.

And remember, you can just as easily be a victim of financial fraud from clicks on your computer as you can from writing a check. As a recent piece in the Washington Post’s Bold School makes clear, older adults who are victims of financial exploitation tend to lose more money than younger victims, so you can never be too careful about what you click on or to whom you respond. Some key advice? Broaden your cyber-security vocabulary and learn how to protect yourself from online thieves and fraudsters. Find out more (this is a safe link!) by clicking here.