Scam Affects More Than 200 Seniors

When the elderly population decides how they want to spend their retirement years, some choose to enter a nursing home and others choose to use at-home care.  For those seniors that use at-home care, many also decide to use security services and long-term care insurance.

Criminals in the Philadelphia area have also noticed this occurrence and used the situation to their advantage.  According to a recent article by PhillyBurbs.com, four suspects have been arrested for taking more than $700,000 from over 200 seniors as part of a scam involving home care, home security services, and long-term care insurance. 

An Upper Southampton man is among four suspects arrested Monday on charges of bilking more than a combined $700,000 from 200-plus seniors in a multi-pronged fraud scam involving home care, home security services and long-term care insurance.  The victims the criminals targeted spent large sums of money for bogus services.  The average age of the victims was 83 and most were retired school teachers.  Some of the bogus business fronts included housecleaning services, cooking and dressing, and home safety equipment. The suspects sold these services mostly by door-to-door cold calls, but more than one of the suspects had prior knowledge and work experience with health insurance companies and had access to those insurance databases. They used these databases to find some of their targets.  As stated in the article, "Victims’ requests for assistance often were ignored, delayed, discouraged or minimized in an effort to avoid providing services. Only when a victim or a victim’s family were persistent were a minimal amount of services provided." The bogus company they created, American Comfort Home Care Services, pocketed 70% of the revenue while only using 3% for actual services to their clients. 


Elder abuse and exploitation is a serious problem.  If you suspect that your loved one has become a victim of elder abuse, please contact Attorney Doug Stoehr's office for a possible consultation.  Attorney Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer serving the western and central Pennsylvania area.