The Trust Thieves: Inside the $28 Billion Epidemic of Elder Financial Exploitation
Somewhere in America, right now, someone is signing over their life savings to a grandson they trust, a caregiver they hired, or a stranger they've never met in person. It happens so often, and so quietly, that nobody actually knows the true cost - estimates range from $3 billion to $36 billion a year, because most victims never report it at all.
The Trust Thieves is not a list of warning signs. It's fifty-three real investigations into exactly how this happens: the grandson who drained his grandmother's IRA down to less than fifty dollars. The attorney who stole $11.8 million from clients who trusted him to honor their final wishes. The AI-cloned voice that convinced a mother her son was in jail. The "wealth protection" firm that sold gold coins at 300% markups to retirees terrified of economic collapse. The professional guardian who left urns of unclaimed ashes in a storage locker.
Every case in this book is real - pulled from court records, DOJ press releases, and state attorney general filings, with names, dates, and dollar amounts intact. No composites. No invented statistics. Where the facts are disputed, this book says so.
Organized into five parts - family and caregivers, strangers, institutions, death and legacy, and protection - The Trust Thieves moves from the most intimate betrayals to the most impersonal, and ends with what actually works: the legal tools, the technology, and the one conversation that prevents more of this than any law ever will.
This book won't make you paranoid. It will make you specific - about what to watch for, who to call, and how to make sure the people you love never become one of these cases.
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
