WOODVILLE – The effects of fraud and financial exploitation on the elderly is the most commonly reported form of abuse against our older population, nationally.
According to reports, financial elder abuse can cost seniors up to $36.5 billion annually, and in many cases, victims are completely unaware that it is happening until it is too late, with scammers using a number of tech-savvy ways to drain bank accounts, or to gain access to seniors’ funds.
Citizens State Bank (CSB), in Woodville, is partnering with Chick-fil-A to present an informative workshop on these topics, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7 in the lobby of the bank.
Both Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin and FBI agent Jeffery Anderson will be on hand to present information to attendees.
Kimen Johnson, who is the senior vice president and chief experience officer at Citizens, said that the bank’s compliance officer, Kari Gartner, had been meeting with her team about concerns with elderly exploitation and fraud, recently.
“They came up with the best way to beat the fraudsters is public awareness and getting the education out there,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the bank reached out to Babin, who also reached out to Anderson. Babin and Anderson agreed to participate, to help educate the public.
Johnson said the workshop is free to the public, and attendees do not have to be CSB customers in order to attend. The first 25 to come to the workshop will receive a complementary dinner from Chick-fil-A.
Oftentimes, the scammers of elderly citizens are operating from foreign lands, and it presents an unfortunate problem on several levels, Johnson said.
“Unforunately, you don’t see so much of the arrests [of scammers] because it’s so difficult to locate and arrest them,” she said.
Gartner said that the bank is happy to bring awareness to fraud and financial exploitation to the public.
“This is a growing epidemic in the communities we serve. If you receive or are requested to send funds and are concerned that it could be fraudulent, feel free to reach out to us for help,” Gartner said.
According to recent figures from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there were 748,555 cases of identity theft reported in the first half of 2025, which exceeds the number of cases reported in the first half of 2024 by 196,357, which puts 2025 on pace to be a record-breaking year for identity theft.
Other data shows from the FTC that reported losses due to fraud were $12.5 billion in 2024.
