Federal prosecutors closed three separate elder fraud cases in four days last week, and not one of the thieves had to guess a password.
One was a bank employee whose actual job was protecting customers from fraud. One was a financial advisor who'd had complete access to a client's brokerage account since 2016. One was a man stealing from his own elderly relative. All three already had the access they needed before they decided to use it.
I spent more than eight years buying houses from families in transition, and I walked away from that side of the business because of what I kept seeing at those kitchen tables. Families were braced for the wrong threat. They'd talk about the phone scam, the roofer, the letter offering cash for the house. Meanwhile the checkbook sat in a drawer four people could open, and nobody had read a statement in a year.
You're probably in some version of that right now, and you don't think of it as a risk, because the people with access are people you love or people you hired. That's exactly the shape of it. If your mother is 84 and still gets paper statements, if your brother has been handling the bills since your dad died, if an aide carries the debit card for groceries, then the question that matters isn't whether you trust them. It's whether anybody else can see what they're doing.
That question has a short answer, and you can get most of it handled this week.
Three Cases, Four Days, One Pattern
On September 17, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio announced that Yue Cao, 36, was sentenced to 120 months in prison. Cao was a quant analytics manager at an Ohio-based bank, and according to that office, he was hired to help protect customers from fraud. A federal jury convicted him in February on ten counts of bank fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of money laundering.
Read his method slowly, because it tells you who's exposed. Cao targeted elderly customers who had not enrolled in the bank's online services. He used an offshore service to create email addresses in the names of more than 100 victims, enrolled those victims in online banking without their knowledge, and pointed their statements and notifications at the addresses he controlled. Then he moved their money into his own accounts. The victims lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Washington and Ohio, and they ranged in age from 90 to 103. Prosecutors put the unauthorized transfers at roughly $2 million.
Three days earlier, on September 14, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced that Ejiroghene O. Okuma, 44, of Smyrna, was sentenced to seven years and four months for wire fraud after pleading guilty in March. According to that office, Okuma had complete access to an elderly client's brokerage account starting in 2016. In 2022 he was appointed to administer the estate of that client's sister, and he used the role to start moving money, including proceeds from the sale of the sister's residence. In February 2023 he opened an unauthorized brokerage account and added himself as a custodian on an existing bank account in the client's name. Within days he moved about $9 million.
And on September 15, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky announced that Samuel Turner, 42, of Science Hill, was convicted on four counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors said Turner got into an elderly family member's bank accounts and credit cards and spent the money on guns, concert tickets and Amazon orders, and cashed out a certificate of deposit worth more than $35,000. His sentencing is set for January 6, 2027.
The Common Thread Isn't Cleverness. It's Access.
Federal data says those three cases are the ordinary shape of this problem, not the extreme version of it.
In April 2024, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, published an analysis of the elder financial exploitation reports that banks and other institutions filed between June 15, 2022 and June 15, 2023. There were 155,415 of them, tied to more than $27 billion in reported suspicious activity. FinCEN sorted them into two buckets: elder scams, where the victim doesn't know the person taking the money, and elder theft, where the victim does.
Elder theft was roughly 20 percent of those filings. The average reported amount in a theft case was $98,863, with a median of $23,762. Those aren't small numbers for a household living on Social Security and a modest IRA.
FinCEN was blunt about who does it. Adult children of older parents were the most frequently identified perpetrators of elder theft, named in nearly 40 percent of the cases FinCEN reviewed by hand. Paid caregivers came next: nurses, aides, rehab facility workers, in-home providers. FinCEN noted those people often already had the banking information, the checkbook, or the personal details, and that the perpetrator usually already has access or can get it quickly. There's no elaborate scheme, because there doesn't need to be one.
Why That Number Should Protect You, Not Insult You
If you're the adult child reading this, that statistic stings. You're the one driving to appointments and calling the pharmacy, and now the federal government is telling you the most common thief looks exactly like you.
Sit with it a second, because it explains things you've probably already run into. It's why the teller goes stiff when you ask about your mother's balance. It's why the brokerage wants a notarized power of attorney and then still won't tell you much. They're not being difficult. They're looking at the same data.
So the move isn't to get offended, and it definitely isn't to take more control quietly. The move is to make what you do visible. A family where two people see every statement is a family where the honest kid never has to prove anything.
The version of this I see most often isn't theft at all. It's a withdrawal nobody can explain a year later, a sibling who decides the worst thing must have happened, and a relationship that doesn't recover. Nobody wrote anything down, so there's no way left to prove the ordinary explanation. Visibility protects your parent from the rare bad actor. It protects you from the much more common suspicion.
The Riskiest Month Is The One The House Sells
Look at the Okuma case one more time. Part of what he took was proceeds from the sale of a house.
That isn't a coincidence. For most families, the largest amount of cash your parents will ever hold at once shows up on a single closing day, lands in one account, and sits there while everybody figures out the next step. After closing it's liquid, it's large, and the number of people who know about it just went up: the agent, the attorney, the buyer's side, the relative who asked how it went.
If your family is anywhere near selling a parent's home, that's the month the account needs more than one set of eyes on it. Not because your people are dishonest. Because that's the month the number is worth taking.
What To Set Up This Week
1. Put a trusted contact on every brokerage and retirement account
FINRA Rule 4512 requires brokerage firms to make reasonable efforts to get the name and contact information for a trusted contact person, age 18 or older, on each customer account. Most families either never filled that in or filled it in once, years ago, and never looked again.
A trusted contact can't trade, can't withdraw, and can't move a dollar. It's a name the firm is allowed to call. Under the rule, the firm tells the customer in writing that it may contact that person about possible financial exploitation, about current contact information or health status, or about the identity of a guardian, executor, trustee or power of attorney holder. That's visibility without control, which is exactly what you want here.
Call each firm, ask for the trusted contact form, and put down a name that isn't the person already handling the money.
2. Turn on alerts, and send them to two phones
Every bank and brokerage will text or email on transactions over a dollar amount you choose, on new accounts, and on address or email changes. The Cao case turned on a notification change. He redirected where the statements went. If one other person on those accounts had been getting an alert on their own phone, that scheme lasts a week instead of years.
3. Find out whether your parents are a paper-statement household
Cao specifically went after customers who had not enrolled in online banking, because nobody was watching those accounts between statements. If your mother gets a paper statement, opens it or doesn't, and files it in a drawer, that account has no second set of eyes on it at all.
You don't have to talk her into online banking. You do need somebody she chooses who can see activity without waiting for the mail.
4. Write down who has access and what they may use it for
Make a one-page list: every account, who's named on it, who carries a card, who has the login, who holds the power of attorney. Then write the boundary in plain words next to each one. Groceries and pharmacy on this card, nothing else.
This costs you nothing, and it's the single thing that makes a hard family conversation survivable a year from now.
5. Learn what a temporary hold is before you need one
FINRA Rule 2165 lets a firm place a temporary hold on a disbursement or transaction in the account of a "specified adult," meaning a person 65 or older, when the firm reasonably believes financial exploitation has happened, is happening, or has been attempted. The firm has to notify the parties on the account and the trusted contact within two business days, unless it believes that person is involved, and the hold expires no later than 15 business days unless it gets extended.
Notice how that rule defines financial exploitation. It counts acts committed through a power of attorney, guardianship, or any other authority. The regulator already knows the paperwork gets used as the tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who steals from older adults most often?
Someone they already know. FinCEN's April 2024 analysis of elder financial exploitation reports found that adult children of older parents were the most frequently identified perpetrators of elder theft, named in nearly 40 percent of the cases it reviewed by hand, followed by paid caregivers such as nurses, aides, rehab facility workers and in-home providers. Strangers running scams account for more total dollars, but the people who already have access account for a large share of the theft.
Does naming a trusted contact give that person control of my parent's account?
No. Under FINRA Rule 4512, a trusted contact is simply a person the firm is permitted to call. That person cannot trade, cannot withdraw, and cannot move money, and naming one does not create a power of attorney. The firm may contact them about suspected financial exploitation, about your parent's current contact information or health status, or about the identity of a guardian, executor, trustee or power of attorney holder.
Can a brokerage freeze my parent's account if it suspects someone is stealing?
Temporarily, yes. FINRA Rule 2165 allows a member firm to place a temporary hold on a disbursement or a transaction in the account of a person age 65 or older when it reasonably believes financial exploitation has occurred, is occurring, or has been attempted. The firm must notify the parties on the account and the trusted contact within two business days, unless it believes that party is involved, and the hold expires no later than 15 business days unless it is extended.
Does a power of attorney protect my parent from financial exploitation?
Not by itself. A power of attorney grants authority to act, which is a relief when the right person holds it and a serious problem when the wrong one does. FINRA Rule 2165 defines financial exploitation to include acts committed through the use of a power of attorney, guardianship, or any other authority over an older adult. Pair the document with visibility: statements going to a second person, alerts turned on, and the boundaries written down.
What should I do if I think a family member is taking my parent's money?
Document before you confront. Pull the last twelve months of statements, write down the specific transactions that worry you with dates and amounts, and call the fraud line at the bank or brokerage to report suspected financial exploitation. You can also contact Adult Protective Services in your parent's county. The Justice Department keeps its elder fraud resources, including how to report, at justice.gov/elderjustice.
About Ryan Riggins
Ryan Riggins is a senior transition advisor and former house flipper. After 8+ years buying homes from families in transition, he walked away from the cash-buyer side to help families avoid the $50K mistakes he used to profit from. Based in Greensboro, NC. NC Real Estate License #361546, eXp Realty. Founder of Riggins Strategic Solutions and the Hammock365 app.
Check the paperwork that bypasses the will. The free Beneficiary Designation Audit walks the accounts that pay out on their own: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/tools/beneficiary-designation-audit
Want a step-by-step guide? The Senior Transition Blueprint is free, all 20 modules and 69 tools: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/the-blueprint
Not sure where your family stands? The free Family Readiness Score takes five minutes and shows the gaps across the home, the money, the legal documents, care, and family alignment: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/tools/family-readiness-score
Need a personalized plan? The Senior Transition Roadmap is free, by application. It adds calls with Ryan and 90 days of email support: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/the-roadmap
Selling a parent's home? Ryan finds and vets the right local agent for your situation and stays in your corner on the whole sale, at no added cost to your family: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/in-your-corner
Coordinate the family in one place. Hammock365 keeps daily check-ins, medications, and documents where the whole family can see them: hammock365.com
Sources
All sources checked September 23, 2026.
- US Attorney's Office, Northern District of Ohio, "Former Bank Employee Who Targeted Elderly Victims in Identity Theft and Fraud Scheme Sentenced to a Decade in Prison," September 17, 2026.
- US Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia, "Financial Advisor Sentenced to Federal Prison for Defrauding Elderly Client," September 14, 2026.
- US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky, "Pulaski County Man Convicted for Defrauding Elderly Relative," September 15, 2026.
- FinCEN, "Elder Financial Exploitation: Threat Pattern and Trend Information, June 2022 to June 2023," April 2024.
- FINRA Rule 4512, Customer Account Information, including Supplementary Material .06, Trusted Contact Person.
- FINRA Rule 2165, Financial Exploitation of Specified Adults.
