All too often, older adults fall victim to coerced debt. Coerced debt is debt taken out in the name of the older adult either through fraud or coercion. Coerced debt is a form of financial abuse.
Coerced debt can happen when a person:
- Takes out credit cards or loans in the older adult’s name without permission or forces an older adult to take out credit or loans that are not for the older adult’s benefit.
- Uses the older adult’s credit card or other accounts for personal expenses, without permission or through coercion.
- Puts bills in the older adult’s name that the older adult does not benefit from, without permission or through coercion.
Tips to avoid coerced debt:
- Place a security freeze, also called a credit freeze, with the three major credit bureaus; and
- Check credit reports for fraudulent items and dispute those directly with the credit agency. Credit reports can be accessed for free at: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action.
State and federal law have specific remedies to help victims of coerced debt. In Texas, a victim of coerced debt is considered an identity theft victim both in cases of outright fraud, where the victim had no knowledge of the debt, and of coercion, where the victim agreed to the debt because of fear of harm.
Victims can:
- File a police report alleging ID theft and file an ID theft report with the Federal Trade Commission at https://www.identitytheft.gov/;
- fraudulent or coerced debts. This order can be used to contest coerced debts with credit bureaus and with owners of the debt.
- Report the coerced or fraudulent transactions to the financial or credit institution, in writing, as identity theft. Victims should also report the coerced debts as identity theft to the three main credit bureaus, in order to block them on the victim’s credit report.
- Submit a complaint of elder financial abuse to Adult Protective Services at: 1-800-252-5400 or www.txabusehotline.org.
Additional information and resources can be found at the Texas Coalition on Coerced Debt’s Financial Abuse Toolkit at www.financialabusehelp.org.