Walk held after City of Tyler recognizes October 2024 as Financial Exploitation Awareness Month

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – The City of Tyler recognized October 2024 as Financial Exploitation Awareness Month at Bergfeld Park on Wednesday. The Smith County Board of Adult Protective Services held a walk through Bergfeld Park to mark the occasion.

Participants in the walk through Bergfeld Park carried signs with phrases such as “Protect the unprotected,” “Be careful with your wallet” and “Protect our seniors.”

“These seniors are on fixed incomes, and many of them know it,” said Shelly Shaw, faith-based and community engagement specialist for Adult Protective Services. “They have access, of course, to their checking accounts and debit cards. And so we see that the perpetrators are usually family members or someone very close to those people.”

To prevent financial exploitation of seniors, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recommends regularly checking credit reports, checking references, and protecting documents that contain personal or financial information.

“Our job as a board is to advocate and educate, and this was able to do both,” said Smith County Adult Protective Services Board President Brittany Shepard. “We were able to stand up and say, you know, we don’t stand for the exploitation and abuse of our older adults because a lot of times they don’t have a voice to be able to speak up for themselves.”

Adult Protective Services plans to hold an event Oct. 28 on UT Tyler’s North Campus to combat financial exploitation. The event is called ‘Be careful with your wallet’ and will take place from 9am to 12pm

Shelly Shaw said anyone concerned about someone they know is being financially exploited can contact the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400 or go to their website.

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