It happens without a gun, and often even without a computermouse, but nowadays one of the fastest growing types of fraud iselder financial abuse, which the Consumer Financial ProtectionBureau tabs as a $2.9 billion annual problem, and it is one that mayonly get bigger as the 40+ million group ofelderly Americans daily grows in number.

The good news for credit unions: many of them now are taking asignificant role in helping safeguard their elderly members'accounts. A belief in many quarters is that financial institutionsare ideally positioned to notice elder fraud early – and that maylead to stopping it earlier.

Case in point: the $1.2 billion MECU in Baltimore now trains every employee in what to look outfor with elder fraud. The online class takes around a half hour,said Dorothea Stierhoff,senior public relations manager.

She added that employees are taught the common elder fraudscenarios and – under Maryland's mandatory reporting requirement –they are taught they must fill out an incident report that goes toMECU's fraud group. That group, in turn, contacts the member toinvestigate and it usually will also pass the report onto lawenforcement for review.

At MECU “not that many reports have been filed,” said Stierhoff,but she added that MECU employees liked being part of a potentialsolution to a big problem.

Cross country, Kim Withers, CEO of Meridian Trust Federal Credit Union, a $274million institution in Cheyenne, Wyo., now requires all employeeswith member contact (“about 75% of our staff,” said Withers) toundergo training in elder fraud.

“I took the training myself,” said Withers. “It teaches you towhat to look out, what are the red flags of elder abuse.”

She added that many Meridian Trust employees had personal familyexperience with elder fraud – she counts herself in that group –and so they are eager to be on the lookout for possible fraud.

Another state with legislation that requires financialinstitutions to report possible elder fraud is Washington – wherethe law passed in 2010 – and at the $151 million Peninsula Community Federal Credit Union in Shelton, vicepresident for human resources Gail Ryan said that every employeegoes through it.

“Our employees care a lot about members – they welcome theability to look after vulnerable members. The training raisesawareness. We teach them risk warning signs,” Ryan said.

Meantime, at the $1 billion Kitsap Credit Union in Bremerton, Wash., outreach coordinatorCathy Brorson said her institution, partnered with the WashingtonState Department of Financial Institutions, has been offering aseries of seminars titled “Elder Investment Fraud and FinancialExploitation:”.

“We pack the rooms wherever we give this. The sessions are verywell attended,” said Brorson.

Hundreds of other credit unions around the nation also aretaking fraud education directly to the vulnerable populations andthe payoff, suggested Brorson, is that when seniors increase theirknowledge of what the common frauds are and where they can seekhelp, “they'll be fine.”

One big change – likely to impact many credit unions – is thatmore states are enacting legislation (a la the landmark Maryland law) that put an onus of responsibility on financialinstitutions to be alert to possible elder fraud and to report itto law enforcement.

In North Carolina, for instance, Lauren Whaley, director of legislative and regulatory Affairs at theNorth Carolina Credit Union League, said draft legislation is inthe legislature and, she added, “it will pass. Our members verymuch want this to pass.”

A reason legislation is necessary: “Banks are terrified ofgetting involved. They are so afraid of being sued,” said Carl G.Archer, an attorney in Hamilton, N.J. That same hesitancy wouldapply to credit unions but legislation that mandates staying alertto possible elder fraud appears to remove much of the fear.

Perhaps the most optimistic commentary on controlling elderfraud comes from Filene, the Wisconsin think tank, which has piloted deploymentsof what it calls “Senior Sentry,” an algorithm that integrates withan institution's core system and flags transactions it believes maybe fraudulent.

Here is how it works, as documented in a Filene write up: “Analert was received on debit card transaction activity duringhigh-risk hours. Around 1:00 a.m. there was an ATM withdrawal on an87-year-old member's account. This is not typically the time of daywhen most seniors use the ATM. Video of the ATM showed that a youngmale made the withdrawal using the member's card. The card was shutdown by the credit union until it was able to contact the member toverify that the member had authorized the transaction. The memberhad allowed his grandson to use the card, but this gave the creditunion the opportunity to speak with the member about the risks ofsharing his PIN with anyone, including family members.”

The big Filene idea: because it has access to a member'stransaction data, a credit union is ideally positioned to detectfraud, even before family members and caretakers might, because thecore system can be queried on a daily basis.

Matt Davis, director ofinnovation at Filene, readily admitted that the algorithm is“imperfect. It needs works.

But he said Filene is looking for partners who may want toassist in furthering the project because, ultimately, closelyreviewing all account data just may be the surest way to nip elderfraud.