The Washington Department of Social and Health Services received 17,586 reports of vulnerable adult abuse in 2010. Twenty-six percent of those reports were about financial exploitation.

Because it is likely that many cases are unreported, many experts believe that the number of vulnerable adults suffering financial exploitation could actually be much higher.

In 2010, the Washington State Legislature amended the Vulnerable Adult Protection Act to give financial institutions new and better tools for preventing and reporting financial exploitation of “vulnerable adults.”

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