on Mar 30th, 2006Senior Scams Vacuum Up Retirement Income
Selling vacuums for a living makes sense if you have the gift of cleaning up at the close. Throw the dirt on the carpet. Whip out the wonder vacuum. Vroom vroom. See how that baby sucks up all that crap in seconds. Sold!
Get a hoser on the phone, though, and watch out. Before you know it, you just might be investing in moon dust that glitters like gold, as long as you have a telescope to see it.
Barry Minkow, remember him, he owned ZZZZ Best carpet-cleaning company in the 1980s, is warning seniors a perfect fraud storm is coming as the baby boomer generation retires. Returns that hit the high C notes may in fact be a worse investment than collecting returns on discarded bottles and cans. Don’t fall for the oldest scam around.
”There’s this environment for fraud, … the perfect fraud storm” engulfing seniors concerned by weak returns in the stock market or shortfalls in their retirement income, said Minkow. He served 7 1/2 years in prison for defrauding investors in his ZZZZ Best carpet-cleaning company in the 1980s.
People 60 and older make up 15 percent of the country’s population but account for an estimated 30 percent of fraud victims. With baby boomers swelling the ranks of retirees, regulators expect an increase in financial scammers preying on them.
Seniors Warned to Be Vigilant About Scams
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 29, 2006