It’s been described as the greatest transfer of wealth in history

So here’s an example of a crime that has absolutely nothing to do with the workplace, and yet everything to do what that personal motivation to change things.

One of the least talked about and yet fastest growing and often most devastating crimes, and one often committed by the same people who were attacking the workplace, is senior scams or elder fraud.

According to the FTC the elderly are being scammed out of more than $80 billion every year – that’s nearly $ 7 billion a month, $152,000 every 60 seconds – through things like investment, romance, and tech support scams.

It’s been described as the greatest transfer of wealth in history. For many, including lots of victims that I’ve worked with, it’s their entire life savings and nothing whatsoever, not a dime, left to live on.

It’s not just financial. The emotional and even physical impact can be much more devastating and often, sadly, life shortening.

And it’s also not just about the victims. There are others who pay because it has a generational impact on kids and grandkids who are not only emotionally impacted but who may have to step in and provide all kinds of emotional and financial support. And the rest of us pay too as many of these victims find themselves no longer able to take care of themselves financially and so have to rely on public and social services.

And then we watch as these criminals in their chat rooms laugh and joke and boast about how they fleeced an 80-year-old out of her life savings.

I recently had exactly such a victim, in her 80s, dealing with stage 4 cancer, who lost her entire life savings to a scammer. Nearly half a million dollars moved into bank accounts in known scam countries and no intervention by her bank.

That same scammer later sent her a text message mocking her for falling for the scam. Imagine how much that hurt on top of everything else she had just been through?

When you meet these victims, and there are now millions of them, you’ll notice how frozen they are with the shock that everything they’ve worked so hard all their lives for is now gone. No savings, no retirement account, no security blanket, and no one coming to help or listen or make them whole – even their bank won’t talk to them. It’s utterly heartbreaking.

These are not isolated crimes or crimes of opportunity. These are often highly organized international criminal gangs, and also often the same gangs involved in attacks on the workplace and who know exactly the harm they’re doing.

If you’re looking for that personal motivation to take security awareness more seriously and to permanently change those habits, you don’t need to look any further than the devastating impact that these crimes and criminals are having on our seniors. Because they could be your parents or grandparents. And if that doesn’t motivate you, I’m not sure what will.