With baby boomers starting to hit retirement age there are more seniors than ever. Unfortunately they sometimes make easy targets.

We only hear about a small fraction of the elderly victims drained of their money every year. That's because trusted family members and caregivers are usually the ones doing the stealing.

KREM.com

“People worked their whole lives to save for retirement some lose capacity to a degree, but still retain the right to do whatever they want with their money - they're easy targets,” said Jim Senescu.

Senescu represents exploited seniors. He spent most of his career in the prosecutor’s office and says the current criminal justice system is not set up to protect elders from financial crimes.

Detectives and prosecutors have limited staffing, and enormous caseloads. Few of the cases end up in criminal court, and some people still consider this a family problem.

Of course it's not just trusted family members and so called friends who take money from our parents, grandparents and neighbors. Our elders can become targets nearly everywhere they go, especially if no one is looking out for them.

“It just leaves you phased out,” says Florence Enberg.

Last week 86-year-old Enberg's wallet was stolen after it fell out of her purse in an east Portland store.

“Ever since I’ve been - you know it's terrible because I have to replace all this stuff,” Enberg said.

Enberg is confused and scared, the crooks took her

Checkbook, keys to her home and car, her driver’s license - even her Medicare card. More than enough for any criminal to have a field day, but Enberg didn't know what to do.

“No, I didn't think about calling police,” she said.

Someone helped her call police, but not until nearly a week after the crime.

Shirley Schnebelen admits she has a hard time saying no. That's why she put up a sign asking door-to-door salespeople to stay away. But they keep coming.

Even so, she does admit to having bought an alarm from one of these salespeople.

The number of elder financial exploitation victims keeps rising every year. Oregon's Department of Human and Health Services reported 2366 reported cases in 2006 and 2617 cases in 2007.

Fortunately, public awareness does appear to be growing. There are now law firms specializing in nothing but elder law, something unheard of a few years ago.

“I came out almost two years ago from the prosecutor’s office and was concerned that there would not be enough cases, said Senescu, the attorney.

“We've already added a third attorney to our law firm and we have more work than we know what to do with. We don't advertise.”

As baby boomers start hitting their golden years we can all help fight financial exploitation, by simply asking questions and taking care of the elders around us.