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Fraud Polyvictimization Among Older Adults: Living Alone, Loneliness, and Distinct Victimization Pathways

Xinyu Miao ; Fangzhou Wang ; Weiping Pei (2026) — Crime & Delinquency

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DOI: 10.1177/00111287261493937 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   United States
Tags:   Fraud Polyvictimization, Loneliness, Older Adults, Relationship Based Fraud, Risk Factors, Victim Experience
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Synopsis

            
This publication investigates fraud victimization among older adults who had prior exposure to mass marketing fraud, focusing on how loneliness and living arrangements relate to polyvictimization across fraud types. The authors' purpose is to describe the prevalence and patterns of multiple fraud experiences, distinguish commerce-oriented from relationship-based fraud, and test whether loneliness mediates the link between living alone and fraud outcomes. Using the Mass Marketing Elder Fraud Intervention (MMEFI) data, they analyze a control-group subset (N = 268) with complete data on demographics, living situation, loneliness, and four fraud outcomes, employing descriptive analyses, logistic regression, and a mediation framework. The study identifies substantial fraud exposure in the past year, with advance-fee/prize fraud and purchase fraud being the most common, and a sizable portion experiencing two or more fraud types. Co-occurrence patterns reveal two distinct domains: a commerce-oriented cluster where advance-fee fraud co-occurs with purchase and investment fraud, and a relationship-based cluster where fabricated relationship fraud relates to genuine interpersonal exploitation and financial coercion or exploitation by known others. Notably, respondents reporting two or more commerce fraud types were much more likely to report relationship-based fraud, indicating interconnected vulnerability across domains. Analyses show that older age is linked to greater commerce fraud risk, while loneliness is associated with all fraud outcomes examined. Living alone increases odds of general commerce fraud, and mediation tests suggest loneliness partially explains the association between living alone and several fraud outcomes. The authors discuss implications for understanding how social isolation and polyvictimization cohere in older adults, while noting the cross-sectional design and a non-representative sample as limitations.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
Limited research has tested loneliness as a mechanism linking living alone to fraud victimization or examined whether elder-fraud types form domains and predict cross-domain victimization. The study also could not determine how repeated fraud accumulates over time, directly assess cognitive decline or dementia, or identify mechanisms behind sex differences in interpersonal exploitation.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
The study analyzed complete cases from 268 untreated control-group respondents in the U.S. Mass Marketing Elder Fraud Intervention survey, a high-risk sample identified from prior responses to fraudulent mail. It examined seven self-reported fraud types using descriptive prevalence, phi co-occurrence coefficients, conditional probabilities, Fisher tests, and hierarchical logistic regression. Regression-based mediation tested indirect associations from living alone through loneliness using 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Firth logistic models and multiple-imputation analyses assessed robustness.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
Cross-sectional data cannot establish temporal ordering or causal mediation; fraud experience may itself increase loneliness. The high-risk, nonrepresentative sample and complete-case analysis limit generalizability. Relationship-fraud outcomes were infrequent, reducing precision and power for small effects and interactions. Social isolation was represented mainly by living alone, fraud domains were descriptive classifications, and cognitive decline or dementia was not directly measured.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Use longitudinal designs to establish the directionality between loneliness, isolation, and fraud victimization; measure broader social connectedness and other psychosocial mechanisms; apply latent class, cluster, or network methods to identify nuanced fraud typologies; examine how victimization accumulates over time; and directly measure cognitive functioning, caregiver arrangements, and relationship contexts.

          

              

    
    

        
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