Senior Scams: A 'New Friend' May Signal a Big Problem

Your elderly mother has a new best friend who accompanies her everywhere. She has always been frugal but now lavishes pricey gifts on her new pal. And although you used to speak with her every few days, she never seems to answer your calls anymore.

Are these simply the signs of a senior living it up in her later years? Or is something sinister happening? Those are the difficult questions that can arise in cases of "undue influence," in which a perpetrator takes advantage of his position of trust or power to gain control over the victim's decision-making, usually to line his own pockets. The perpetrator could