What is a sweetheart scam?

The "sweetheart scam" involves a young stranger ingratiating himself or herself to an elderly person, winning the affections of that person or otherwise obtaining psychological control over them, and then taking over the older person's estate or financial affairs. Undue influence plays a key role in this type of scam (see below) and quite often the victim aligns with the abuser, much like in domestic violence situations. The scam usually continues until all the money is gone, and then the “sweetheart” leaves the victim, causing emotional and psychological damage in additional to the financial loss.

Once of the first cases that ElderAngels, Inc. investigated involved a sweatheart scam. The story of Jimmy Callahan touched our hearts and became one of the motivating factors behind the forming of ElderAngels. The system failed Jimmy Callahan. We at ElderAngels are committed to the fight against financial elder abuse. We owe it to Jimmy Callahan and all the elderly who have fallen victim to such crimes.

The Jimmy Callahan Story

Jimmy Callahan was 85 years-old when a young woman stepped on his foot as he stood outside a senior center. To apologize, she invited him for coffee.

Alone since his wife's death, Mr. C. reveled in the companionship she and her extended family came to provide. He was not a wealthy man, but like so many of our seniors, he'd saved enough to live his final years in comfort. He had enough, in fact, so that when his new friend's daughter needed an operation, he gave her $5,000. When her sister longed for a beauty shop, he could finance that dream. And when her brother required equipment for his roofing company, he would gladly invest there, as well.

What Jimmy Callahan didn't know was that there was no operation. The beauty shop he saw from the car window belonged to someone else. And the woman's brother was actually her husband. Mr. C. lost over $185,000 to his newfound "friends".

In the end, when Jimmy Callahan had nothing left to give, was blind and could no longer walk; the suspect simply dropped him off at a hospital and drove away. In his final days, Jimmy's piercingly blue cataract-filled eyes told the story better than we ever could; the pain, humiliation and loss that comes from being betrayed.

On January 1, 1997, destitute and on public assistance, Mr. Callahan died in a 27-bed unit at Laguna Honda Hospital. His "sweetheart" was never arrested nor even questioned by police. She is now married to another 89-year-old Bay Area man.