Brain changes in older adults increase risk for scams

Older adults who have been scammed by friends, relatives or strangers seem to behave just like elders who have avoided rip-offs. They are able to balance their checkbooks. They can remember and evaluate information. Their personalities are normal, and their arithmetic is fine. But their brains are different. For the first time, researchers have found a biological basis for financial exploitation in the elderly. The team is led by a Cornell scientist with collaborators at York University in Toronto.