The Grinch Lives in San Mateo, and Commits Financial Elder Abuse

San Mateo, CAIn what has to be one of the strangest financial elder abuse cases in recent memory a San Mateo, California psychic has been charged with attempting to defraud an elderly woman out of thousands of dollars in a case that is nothing less than fear-mongering. Financial elder abuse law will hopefully see to it that Janet Adams never again commits financial abuse against an innocent party.

Her track record, suggests otherwise.

It was back in 2003 that Adams was convicted of defrauding an unidentified businesswoman out of $90,000. The victim told police that she had befriended Adams, and even agreed to advance her a personal loan, but that Adams kept asking for more.

One day, it has been reported, Adams told the businesswoman that she might get into her car one day, and the brakes might fail. The suggestion was made that Adams had the kind of psychic powers that could prevent such an event from happening, and demanded money.

Adams received a suspended sentence for that one. While on probation, she convinced a 19-year-old woman to give her $14,000 to prevent harm from coming to her family.
That performance, together with the violation to her probation, earned Adams two years in the woman's state prison in Chowchilla.

However, it wouldn't be long before Adams was back at it, operating two psychic reading kiosks at a strip mall. This time, she is accused of committing financial elder abuse in the cruelest way possible.

According to an investigative report from KGO-TV 7 in San Francisco, an 85-year old woman came cross Adams' kiosk in the parking lot of a strip mall in San Mateo. The victim had said it sounded like fun, and she just did it for a lark.

Upon going in and undertaking the reading, Adams told the poor elderly woman that her husband was going to die unless the victim paid Adams $13,000. The psychic would eventually swindle her hapless victim out of $93,000 before police caught up with her.

The financial elder abuse allegedly committed by psychic Janet Adams is, perhaps, a slightly more sensational example of financial abuse against the elderly, but it provides a clear example of the vulnerability of the elderly, and how vultures that prey on the elderly, their fears and their trusts and their ban accounts, swoop in to take advantage:

Door-to-door salespeople who convince elderly residents that their homes require major repairs, almost sight unseen—then demand payments of thousands of dollars upfront, often in cash, before any work is even performed. Bogus telephone solicitors who convince trusting seniors that their safety is in jeopardy unless sums of money are paid.

Sadly, even trusted family members will commit crimes against financial elder abuse law to sweet-talk money from a parent or other relation—often in competition with other siblings.

Or a financial services broker, who overwhelms an easily confused elderly investor with double-talk, pushing them into an ill-fitting investment that lines the pockets of the broker in commissions and fees.

It's tragic, given the confusion elderly individuals oft times suffer. With money in the bank, and substantial equity in their homes, a senior is a favorite pawn for swindlers.

A mean-spirited psychic in San Mateo allegedly took financial elder abuse to a new level, using fear-mongering tactics linked to allegedly predicting the future to swindle $93,000 out of a trusting senior who feared for the life of her husband. What's more, Adams was ordered to pay back a large sum of money to a previous victim. The victim has not seen any of the money.

It is doubtful this poor senior, a victim of financial abuse, will see her money either. One can only hope that financial elder abuse law comes down hard on this mean-spirited opportunist from San Mateo, and others like her—and shuts her down for good.