PHOTO PROVIDED From left are Commissioner Amber Concepcion, Commissioner Chair Mark Higgins, Sheri Neale-Gummo, Quentin Burchfield and Commissioner Steve Dershem pose for the proclamation of June 2025 as Elder Abuse Prevention Month.

BELLEFONTE — Reports of elder abuse in Centre County have surged five-fold over the last decade, prompting the Board of Commissioners to proclaim June 2025 as Elder Abuse Prevention Month.

Speaking before the county commissioners this week, Quentin Burchfield and Sheri Neale-Gummo of the Centre County Office of Aging revealed that over 350 reports of elder abuse were made in 2024, a dramatic increase from years past. They attributed the rise to a combination of heightened awareness of what constitutes abuse and increasingly sophisticated financial scams.

While elder abuse can sometimes be egregious, it often takes more subtle forms as neglect or maltreatment. Examples of elder abuse can include physical abuse, neglect, self-neglect, sexual abuse and financial exploitation.

“It’s the same across Pennsylvania. Every year, you’re looking at an increased percentage of reports coming in,” said Burchfield, director of the Office of Aging.

“We believe some of it is recognition,” he said, though he did not discount the possibility that the actual occurrence of abuse is also rising.

Recently, Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich announced that, for the first time, financial exploitation has surpassed self-neglect as the most commonly reported issue to the department.

In Centre County alone, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been stolen from elderly residents. Statewide, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General estimates that criminals stole between $260 million and $2.1 billion from Pennsylvanians over the age of 60 in 2022. They also estimate that more than 28,000 Pennsylvania seniors were victimized by financial scams in the 2022-23 fiscal year, which is up nearly 30 percent from the previous year.

Often, the money stolen by these criminals is unrecoverable, which the Office of Aging and county commissioners say underscores the importance of educating seniors about new and evolving scams before they become victims.

“The financial exploitations are getting more complex, and they are getting more difficult to investigate,” said Burchfield.

The Office of Aging representatives explained that, increasingly, scammers are adopting new techniques to dupe their victims, including spoofing calls, conducting background research or creating “deepfake” – hyper-realistic AI-generated or manipulated media – to make their scams more convincing.

“AI has taken it to a whole other level,” said Burchfield. “It becomes very believable.”

“We’re hearing horror stories,” he said, of calls mimicking voices of grandchildren in trouble. Commissioner Amber Concepcion mentioned that her own parents have been targeted by scammers using similar tactics.

The representatives said, often, the victims of these scams are older adults who are isolated or cognitively impaired.

“They are using that vulnerability to really pray on them,” said Neale-Gummo.

She warned that in some particularly serious cases, scammers have shown up at victims’ homes, which she shared has already happened in Centre County. In one instance, she said, an abuser physically took gold from a victim’s home.

“But what’s not talked about a lot,” Burchfield said “are friends and family members who are exploiting their loved ones.”

He explained that this abuse often takes the form of a relative opening credit cards or bank accounts in the victim’s name.

Scammers of all sorts frequently exploit their victims’ embarrassment or fear of retribution to keep them from coming forward. In other cases, they convince the victim that the money will be returned or that it was spent for a good cause.

The representatives urged anyone who has fallen victim to a scam to come forward and speak with the police to prevent further exploitation. They emphasized that the Office of Aging, the Sheriff’s Office and local law enforcement are all ready to help, without judgement, and that state and federal legislators also have resources available to support victims.

The Office of Aging operates a 24/7 on-call service to take reports of elder abuse and employs three full-time protective service workers whose job it is to investigate allegations of neglect, abuse, exploitation and abandonment. These workers determine the facts of each allegation and, if the person needs protective services, develop a plan to eliminate or reduce the risk of abuse. The office is currently hiring to fill one of these protective service positions.

To help educate the public about these scams, the Office of Aging will be hosting a Scam Jam event on Aug. 13, 2025, at the new Community Services Building, 502 E. Howard Street, Bellefonte. Sponsored by Rep. Paul Takac (D-Centre), the event is intended to help educate older adults about the risk, identification and prevention of phone-based scams

The Commissioners urged the community to think of their role in preventing elder abuse, especially when an older person’s ability to advocate for themselves has been diminished or lost.

Based on current projections, the super-senior population in Centre County, which includes people over the age of 85, will double in the next 25 years. The Commissioners noted how imperative it is that we establish a norm for protecting our elders both in the present and for the future.