SPRING TYPICALLY SEASON FOR SCAMS AGAINST SENIORS

Elderly people need to watch out for spring scams, which tend to rise with the temperatures, says a Cape Girardeau County senior citizens advocacy group.

Seniors and Lawmen Together, or SALT, issued the warning Monday to inform senior citizens that springtime offers a great opportunity for con artists who typically prey on the elderly.

As the weather gets warmer, it happens with more frequency, said police Sgt. Carl Kinnison. There has been at least one report of a suspicious person offering to paint an elderly person's barn in Cape Girardeau County this year, he said.

Con artists prey on the elderly because they seem most vulnerable to their techniques, Kinnison said.

"The smooth, quick-talking con men often confuse or intimidate elderly residents to go along with the scam," Kinnison said. "It's often days later before the resident realizes what happened."

Although scams against the elderly occur throughout the year, many of the scams involve an offer to do some type of external home repair, Kinnison said. Obviously, these ripoffs tend to be most effective as the weather becomes warmer, Kinnson said.

Many of the schemes involve unsolicited offers to repair a roof, asphalt a driveway, paint a house or barn, or install lightning rods. Kinnison said what makes them suspicious is that the offers are unsolicited.

Other schemes are used to trick the elderly into outright giving their money to the con artists, he said. Such scams offer the victims a lot of money in return for small, good-faith payments, Kinnison said.

Scams involving home repair typically involve an agreement to do a particular job for a small sum of money. The con artists will then either do the job with inferior materials and then demand a much higher fee, or will receive a down payment with no intention of performing the services, Kinnison said.

Kinnison said that these types of scams can best be prevented by simply not doing business with people offering unsolicited services. If a repair is needed, the best way to do business is by using a well-known local company that can provide adequate references.

A lot of scams go unreported, making it difficult to determine how many occur each year, Kinnison said.

"People are embarrassed to admit that they were taken in," Kinnison said. "Once it happens, they just let it go."

SALT consists of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, Jackson Police Department, the Cape Girardeau Police Department and the American Association of Retired Persons.