The recent increase in elder fraud was highlighted in SVT’s Uppdrag Granskning on Wednesday, in the program it was shown how a Swedish league based in Marbella, Spain, cheats Swedish pensioners out of hundreds of thousands of kroner.
According to a press release, the government is now taking a series of measures to prevent criminals from having access to various payment systems.
Among other things, a special cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance has been initiated and as part of this the Prime Minister has called bank managers and the police to a meeting on how the banks can take greater responsibility and how the cooperation can be strengthened.
“The culprits are of course those who commit the crimes, but the banks also have a great responsibility to help stop crime. This may involve knowing more about their customers and having sufficient control systems that detect when deviant transactions take place,” says Ulf Kristersson according to the text.
He continues:
“Elderly people, who often have the hardest time defending themselves, are hit the hardest. It’s high time to stop this.”