A group of retirees have shared their struggles after a devious fraudster, who conned them out of millions of dollars, is put behind bars for his cruel crime.
Bradley Silver received a sentencing of eight years in jail, with a non-parole period of two and half years for 13 dishonesty charges, including seven counts of fraud. The criminal had ran a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme, targeting Aussie retirees, as old as 98, through so-called invested companies.
In total the retirees signed away a total of $9 million with one single mother losing a whopping $375,000. Speaking to A Current Affair about the shocking act, Debra Ruscoe said she had planned to invest her funds for one year with hopes to by her own home but sadly things took a turn for the worst when the company went under.
However, she’s not alone in her struggles with Susan Jones admitting she was also convinced by Silver’s salesperson Elizabeth Orchard to invest $90,000 in cash, followed by a further $450,000 equity in her home via a bank loan. While there were positives in the beginning Susan said it wasn’t long before things went downhill and she was seeing nothing flowing into her account.
“I was too scared to even log in to have a look and see, because there was nothing happening,” she told A Current Affair. “And I was kind of getting very anxious when I was searching for the deposits.”
They were joined by Mark Morley who invested a staggering $300,000 to begin with, and then months later an extra $100,000 in hopes of buying a new home and land package. The whole debacle has affected not only Mark’s finances but his mental health with the Aussie admitted he has fallen into a deep depression.
“It knocks the wind out of your sails because it was a large sum of money that was going to be my retirement,” he told A Current Affair. “And so hence I thought my retirement was gone.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed 98-year-old great-grandmother Heather Simmers was convinced into signing up to a 30-year loan totalling close to $500,000. After significant distress and heartbreak from many across Australia now struggling to get by, Silver has received his punishment with years ahead of him in jail.
Unfortunately, there are many devious scammers leaving Aussies in financial distress with a recent report revealing one in four retirees – categorised as those aged 65 and over – have lost more than $1,000 of their hard-earned cash to credit card fraud. The report of 1,500 credit card holders from comparethemarket.com found that the older you become, the more susceptible you are to credit card fraud.
Those aged 55 and over, referred to as Baby Boomers in the report, were the next age group targeted the most when it came to credit card scams, with 22 per cent losing $1,000 or more after having their credit card details skimmed. In comparison, a fifth (20 per cent) of those aged 25 to 34 fell victim to a credit card scam and only 11 per cent of those aged under 25 were targeted. However, the survey also found almost a third (32 per cent) of retirees try to avoid using their credit card online.
Rod Attrill, the resident money expert at comparethemarket.com.au, said older Australians are more likely to become a victim of these types of scams, as “those heading into the later years of their life are having to keep up with the fast-paced nature of a cashless society which can prove both difficult and costly.”
He added that this particular age group are also more prone to scams as they’re perceived as having more wealth compared to their younger counterparts, “which makes them an attractive target when grabbing card details”. Attrill continued: “This is why it’s vital for any consumer, old and young alike, to be extra vigilant anytime they use their credit card for online purchases or even when withdrawing money at an ATM.”
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