Oldest Living US Veteran Has Bank Account Completely Wiped Out by Thieves
With the advance of technology it has become increasingly difficult for the elderly to keep up with the newest scams and ploys.
That, paired with the desperation of some individuals to steal no matter who it’s from, means that the elderly are often the targets for lots of fraud.
At a time in their life when they’ve earned retirement and should be enjoying rest and family, it’s deeply saddening that so many are being mistreated in this way.
Richard Overton is one of the oldest living people at the grand old age of 112. He’s also the oldest living veteran in America.
Of all people, after everything he’s experienced, he should be given a break. But he’s just become one of the most recent victims of identity theft.
His entire bank account was drained. While the actual amount has not been revealed, his cousin — who’s in charge of his finances — said it was a large sum.
“It’s a shock, it hurts, it hurts tremendously,” Volma, Richard’s cousin, said. “I don’t know how they got his social security number and his personal checking account number but those things they have.”
The bank has been working with them, but it is unclear whether the money will be recovered. The family has already asked for help meeting the yearly cost of in-home care for Overton, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of $180,000.
This setback certainly doesn’t help. A GoFundMe was set up prior to this incident, since the costs for care were already staggering, but the family is relying on the generosity of others now more than ever.
Volma hopes the publicity this case is receiving will warn others and bring justice to this particular instance of fraud.
“We wanted to put word out about them using his name with stolen ID. It might help others realize how vulnerable we all are to this,” he said.
“My mind goes up and down the gamut from A to Z of who it could be, but it could be someone in a foreign country,” Volma said.
Hopefully they’ll get to the bottom of this case and others will be warned about how easy it is to be taken advantage of through this sort of scheme. Meanwhile, plenty of fans have been helping to fund the veteran’s care.
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