ROMANCE SCAM PUTS NEW ELDER EXPLOITATION LAW TO THE TEST

The latest FBI figures show elder fraud complaints rose 59% last year, with losses reaching $7.7 billion

Three years after losing his wife, a lonely Jacksonville senior believed things were finally looking up. A friendly woman reached out on “WhatsApp” claiming to know a friend of a friend.

“Over the next few weeks, she texted some videos, called him, and convinced him to purchase an airline ticket to allegedly meet,” recounts Elder Law Section Chair Amy Fanzlaw.

The face-to-face meeting never gelled, but a digital romance blossomed. The two grew so close, the “woman” generously shared an investment opportunity that sounded too good to be true.

And it was, Fanzlaw assures. The woman? A male scam artist working from a Chinese boiler room.

By the time family members got police involved, the widower had taken the bait “hook, line, and sinker,” Fanzlaw says.

“Within a four-day period, he had wired over $450,000 into various accounts,” Fanzlaw says. “Now, when his family found out, he was in the process of wiring another $200,000, so there was a lot of money going out the door.”

Fortunately, the family engaged an elder law attorney who worked with the local police department’s exploitation unit, and who also helped the Elder Law Section develop an anti-fraud initiative that eventually became SB 106. Sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Southwest Florida attorney, “Exploitation of Vulnerable Adults” sailed through the Legislature without a negative vote and was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 20, 2025.

A key feature authorizes an attorney seeking an injunction to freeze a bank transfer to serve an “unascertainable” party – the suspected scammer – by using the same communications method the scammer used to contact the victim. In this case, Fanzlaw notes, it was “WhatsApp.”

“It’s using their own tactics, basically, against them,” Fanzlaw says.

The attorney was able to stop the financial bleeding, but could not recover all of the funds that were diverted, Fanzlaw says.

Like many victims, the widower didn’t believe he was a victim, and the incident drove a wedge between him and the intervening family members, Fanzlaw says. Now they’re worried he may be targeted again.

“The gentleman is not very happy with his family, he feels this is still real, and the family is ruining his new relationship,” she says.

After an informal poll of section members, Fanzlaw believes the incident was the first time the new law was invoked.

“The judge in this case wasn’t even aware that service could be made through WhatsApp,” Fanzlaw says.

Scam artists likely targeted the widower using a combination of public information, including death certificates, funeral notices, and social media posts. A potential data breach could have tipped them off to his significant financial assets, Fanzlaw said.

The fraudsters could afford to invest time developing the widower’s trust because elder fraud is so lucrative.

The latest FBI figures show elder fraud complaints rose 59% last year, with losses reaching $7.7 billion. Florida seniors accounted for $709.8 million of that, the FBI figures show.

Ashly Guernaccini, founder of atCause Law Office in Clearwater, warns her elder clients to beware of all telephone, email, and social media solicitations that involve requests for money.

Generative AI has given scammers a powerful way to mimic a grandson or granddaughter’s voice, often a desperate plea for bail or other financial assistance.

“There’s always some urgency to act, a loved one is in trouble,” she says. “We say, even if it is a real emergency, you have to get off the phone right away and call back on a number you are familiar with.”

Guernaccini said she was heartbroken when she discovered, too late, that a client had fallen victim to a romance scam perpetrated by a “woman” outside of the U.S.

“She was getting him to send her money regularly, and, unfortunately, he didn’t end up reporting this to me until he was several months in and had several wire transfers,” she said. “I think it was in the ballpark of $100,000 to $125,000, a substantial part of his retirement.”

She advises clients to establish a trusted contact with their bank or brokerage. That gives the financial institution a way to report suspicious transactions, Guernaccini says.

For now, the Elder Law Section is hoping to raise awareness about the new statute.

“So, there’s a lot of education that we still need to do out there,” Fanzlaw said. “The more people who know, the more people we can help.”

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