Our state has a law triggering mandatory reporting to the state's elderly protection office anytime any person (a doctor, a police officer, a banker, a friend - any person at all) in the state suspects elder abuse, including the misuse or theft of funds.

But we've already filed a SAR, and a federal law enforcement agency has already resolved the case. Through our quick detection of the scam and our education of and outreach to the customer, the customer did not incur a financial loss.

Are we still obligated to call the state's hotline?

Our concern is that the customer was just the victim of a scam that anyone could have fallen for; the fact that he is in his 70s does not appear to have anything to do with it. If someone had offered you $500 to receive and forward funds from a $50,000 check, you might have fallen for it too. And we're aware that the state will launch an investigation, contact the customer, tell them that someone referred him to them, etc. We think the customer has suffered enough already.

Hard to say without reading your specific State law.

Our state has a law triggering mandatory reporting to the state's elderly protection office anytime any person (a doctor, a police officer, a banker, a friend - any person at all) in the state suspects elder abuse, including the misuse or theft of funds.

If there are no exemptions within this state law you can rely on then I don't think you have a choice but to report.

don't know what state, don't know how simple or onerous it is to report to them, but if the law says you must report, then report. if they allow it, include that it was already resolved. otherwise, involve your bank's legal counsel to have their opinion about if you need to report.

From a Google search:

All fifty states have laws regarding the reporting of elder abuse, including financial abuse. There are significant differences among state laws, including a roughly uniform split between mandatory versus permissive reporting regimes.

Not all states with mandatory reporting include financial institutions in the list of mandatory reporters. My bank is in three states and only one state requires financial institutions to report.

Need to look up your state law.

I think the core question is what qualifies as "abuse". Depending on how this term is defined, a crime in which the victim is not chosen based on age/vulnerability may not qualify.

OP here: Without divulging my state, I can respond:

* our state defines elder abuse to include "theft or misuse of funds"
* the purpose of our statutes are to protect elders from physical or emotional harm when they are incapable of protecting themselves
* mandatory reporting applies to "any person" and examples include bank tellers, doctors, etc.

I don't see a theft or misuse of funds in the scenario you provided.

OP here: Thank you. Maybe, attempted theft? Customer was in the classic "I'll send you some money but you have to forward some of it to somebody else" scam. If the scam had worked, the customer would have been on the hook for it. The customer's account would have been debited for the scam funds, even though the customer would've already taken some out to send it to scammers.

The statute says "misuse or theft" but not "attempted misuse or theft." On the other hand, it might be covered by: "illegal...use funds..." of an elderly person. But again, there's no "attempted" in that part either.

Reading the rest of the law as a whole, I really don't think this scenario falls under the letter or spirit of it. There are vendors telling us it applies to "any person" with emphasis on the "any," but the law is written to provide emphasis on doctors and social workers. And the rest of it is highly focused on seniors who are in some way physically abused, forcibly isolated, etc. It's all about protection orders, moving the person to a nursing home or away from whoever is abusing them, etc. I don't see anything there that remotely implies that a banker should be calling elderly services every time a customer over age 60 falls for some Nigerian scam on the internet.

Just using the golden rule, I don't think I should call. If I was age 60+ and almost-but-not-quite lost money to a scammer, I would be seriously upset and feel wronged if my banker took that as a reason to turn me over to the state bureaucracy for inability to manage my own affairs.