Two Men Arrested Stealing $37,000 in Elder Financial Scam
Two salesmen selling water purification systems have been arrested and charged with exploitation of the elderly after selling systems to an 88-year-old woman for over $37,000. The equipment is actually valued at a much lower price. The sales occurred in isolated incidents, the first one occurring when a salesman kept returning to the woman’s house to sell her equipment that he said was necessary for treating her water system.
Jonathan Yacketta charged the woman a total of $23,510 within days. The second incident involved a salesman named Christian Blanken who sold the same woman water purification and air filtration systems all of which cost $14,015 total. The woman reportedly suffered from dementia and admitted she was never able to say no to the salesmen.
This incident demonstrates not only the continued prevalence of elder financial abuse but also the dangers of allowing a person suffering from dementia to maintain their own finances. Dementia is characterized by damage to the brain that affects behavior, memory, thinking and other mental capacities. If the victim in this incident had their finances taken care of by somebody else, it is likely that this incident never would have happened. That is not to say that the woman is at fault. This incident would also have been prevented if the salesmen had been stopped in their previous attempts at scamming other elderly individuals as well.
