1st-person testimony of scams and frauds against seniors

It was summer 2021, and my mother’s desk was a mess, including a torn envelope from the IRS shoved in the back of a drawer.

“Mom?” I asked. “Did you pay your taxes?”

My mother, increasingly forgetful at 84, said she wasn’t sure. She told me to call her accountant of 30 years, who said the taxes hadn’t been paid but that he would take care of it.

That’s not all he took care of.

Within the year, a family member had my mother sign a blank check, which the accountant (or...