Fraud targeting the elderly - A prize of our open society?

Abstract: Fraud targeting the elderly has in recent years received more and more attention, although fraudulent behavior against the elderly only constitute a small part of all reported fraud offences the fact that perpetrators intentionally and systematically utilizing their vulnerability should be taken seriously. It is therefore considered important to expand the knowledge regarding elderly exposure to fraud, but not because of the volume of crime rather because of the particular vulnerability the elderly possesses. The present study intends to examine how perpetrators of fraud find the elderly victims and whether or not the principle of public access to information affects elderly exposure to this type of crime. The study has been conducted through semi-structured interviews with individuals from the Swedish police authorities, all with connections to fraud and crime against elderly in different ways. Trough the thematic analysis, it emerged that perpetrators find their intended victims with the help of websites that mass-publish personal information and that this mainly takes place within the framework of organized crime. The principle of public access to information therefore tends to be an important phenomenon to consider in the work of making elderly less suitable targets of fraud.