pREVENT eLDERLY fROM tRICKING bY cRIMINALS*

In your housing estate, a number of criminals has been tricking old people into giving them money. On behalf of the Owner’s Association of the estate, write to the Hong Kong Post about an incident that took place recently. Describe how the old person was tricked, what the victim lost and explain some of the measures your association has taken to protect people from being tricked in future.

Dear Editor

I am writing to draw the public attention to what the elderly has been tricked in my housing estate recently. It alarms me to share those cases because of avoiding others from being tricked.

The trap was set by a group of criminals and their target was the old people lived in some large housing estate. They usually find the elderly who is alone. They will lie on them that there is some troubles happened on the victims’ families and then recommend the victim to give them a large amount of money to help the family to tackle the troubles. Sometimes, the victim may have not enough money immediately; therefore, the criminal will suggest the victim get money from the bank account. In fact, the money is not used to help the victims’ families; it is taken away by the criminal.

According to the victims mention, the average of money they lose is above five thousands dollars. It is a quite large amount for those elderly. This loss may affect their life so much since it may probably the total amount of money of them, thus they do not have additional money to buy food or any essences for daily life. It is very harmful to the victims, therefore, the traps alerts the public to concern about the effective protection for elderly from being tricked.In order to protect the old residents from being tricked, the Owners’ Association of our estate will set up a volunteer team consisting of our neighbors. For example, the volunteers will offer help when they find that the elderly is talking to suspect strangers. They will ask for identification of the strangers so as to reduce the risk of the trap happen.

Raising the awareness of the trap is also an effective solution of protecting our old residents. For instances, holding talks, which are about avoiding the trap, give information of the trap and suggest the ways to prevent it in the future. These activities could be cooperated with the Hong Kong Police as well.

Promotion of encouraging the old residents to strengthen the communication with their families is also important for preventing the trap. It is impossible that the elderly will believe the criminal after asking the real situation from their families. The criminal will not success if the communication between them and their families is sufficient.It is ridiculous that those criminals success in tricking the elderly in Hong Kong, where is labeled as one of the most safety cities around the world. We need to do anything to hold this honor in the future.

Yours faithfully

k*