The fraud research community has long suspected that losses due to elder financial abuse were worse than the $2.9 billion previously estimated. True Link’s data science team, looking for clarity and an accurate assessment of the problem, decided to tackle this question head-on.

The results of this research, The True Link Report on Elder Financial Abuse 2015, reveals that seniors lose $36.48 billion each year to elder financial abuse — more than twelve times what was previously reported. What’s more, the highest proportion of these losses — to the tune of $16.99 billion a year — comes from deceptive but technically legal tactics…