GA Dept.of Aging Services, investigation of exploitation.

if APS is actually doing an investigation, it is because a mandated reporter has filed a concern that a vunerable adult appears to have been taken advantage of. Mandated reporters are doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, EMS, law enforcement, even animal control staff. Even someone who works city / county or state programs, which can mean librarians & postal workers can be mandatory reporters.

If you want to continue to be difficult in interfacing with APS - which you seem to be insistent on doing- the absolutely best thing for you to do is pay a retainer to a criminal defense attorney who does family law work. And be 100% upfront with them as to your past and for anyone in your household. Even if something was expunged, let your attorney know. A proactive soft retainer will be couple thousand at best., maybe less if you own property, have a FT job and your credit report seems normal. Because if APS feels you are taking advantage of your grandparents, you want that attys number on your speed dial.

Is this accurate….. you are not POA for your grandparents? if you have in any way have acted in that capacity, like at their bank or in decision making for a hospital or clinic visit, that is problematic. If you insisted on sitting with grandpa at his bank after the bank officer said they wanted to speak with him directly, that could be viewed as influencing grandpa. Bank officer noted this in bank records. It’s not a good look for you.

Both your grandparents are alive, is that right? If it’s she is housebound and he’s her caregiver, It could well be that APS was looking into something related to your grandmother first. If she doesn’t leave her home except for health reasons, then it would have been a health care mandated reporter document that was done. Reoccurring injuries & improper medication management could easily lead to a report. Some of the medical professionals on this site can give specific examples of what would be “of concern”. And I suspect that in doing grandma’s investigation, it led to concerns about grandpa’s cognitive & competence. Then add on a “hack”, well this all just seems real sus. You’re being all defensive with APS, not at all helpful.

Was he scammed rather than hacked? Hacking like his debit card was skimmed. Scammed is he has been communicating with others and willingly giving them information. Please pls realize he may not be truthful to you if he was involved in a romance or pig butchering scam. A search on his computer, iPad and phone might give you clues as to what happened. Scams are crazy common. Hard for families to accept.
Did he or did you help him to file a police report and maybe an IC3, and put an Identity Theft & freeze on his & grandmas big 3 credit reports? Those are basic steps when banking & CC are compromised. Being all defensive and not helping him doing basic safety steps after a scam, makes you look unable to be a POA.

APS has the ability to have a lot of authority. They can ask the court for a POA to be removed and a temporary Guardian placed or even have elders made an emergency Ward of the State. You can be all peeved, but really the Court is going to go with APS suggestions. Unless you or rather your attorney can sway the court otherwise.

Red, if you are acting towards the investigator as you have here, you are making the problem worse. You have thrown up red flags that any investigator or mandatory reporter would be moving Heaven and earth to find out how to protect your grandparents from you.

I don't ascribe to blindingly trusting anyone but, I am old enough to know that my response can create a bigger problem then it started out as. As you have done.

You need to let grandpa speak with the police and investigator without you present or you will be viewed as an abuser, because that is abuse 101.

Oh, grandma and grandpas assets are not yours or your families, so you should stop trying to own them until and if you are a beneficiary in their will. This is another red flag to APS.

Red, I strongly suspect the bank reported your grandfather as "vulnerable" due to the fact that he's had hacking problems.

I understand your feeling that you are feeling uncomfortable with this process. Try to understand that your grandfather IS vulnerable because he is easily confused, even if it's just by technology.

I'm glad you're going to get the POA process going soon.

My husband had POA for his brother B, and found out that a case had been opened with adult protective. We believe it was regarding possible financial exploitation, and were pretty sure this was initiated by the bank. We found out that B's neighbor, who'd been helping him out with shopping and driving, would have B withdraw amounts frequently, not gigantic amounts but $50-150 several times per week; my brother in law would be driven there by this neighbor and do the withdrawals himself, so it wasn't a true scam--just exploitation by someone he trusted, and lack of judgement on his part. We only found out about the withdrawals and the bank's concern when my husband went in person to the bank to have the copy of the POA put on file and the bank told him about it. This was in a small town, and everyone knew my brother in law; the bank was well aware of his previous withdrawal patterns and knew something was amiss. We didn't know then about the APS case, but a few weeks later we were contacted by APS who had a bunch of questions. My husband told the APS caseworker that he had POA and had taken his brother's checkbook, wallet, and cards when he had recently gone into a nursing home and that safeguards had been set up so that there were tight controls on B's spending. APS did not tell us who had initiated the inquiry, nor who was being investigated, but we had a pretty good idea based on circumstantial evidence. They said they would have the case open for a little while, but would likely close it, but my husband never received any formal notification that it was closed even though he was POA.

If grandfather was scammed, even though he's been made whole by the bank, there may be concern that he's vulnerable, and APS wants to be assured that this won't re-occur. It's possible that bank policies mandate they report cases like this, possibly to protect itself.

It's possible APS investigations differ by county and state, and this is a global forum. I believe people are able to report to APS anonymously, and this is why they aren't divulging this information. Consult with an local elder law attorney who has experience in dealing with those types of APS investigations. Sometimes the first-time consults are free and you'd get insight right away about what to expect from the process, and protect yourselves first and foremost..

There’s no missing information other than who reported this “exploitation”. And what happens in an investigation, and who is being investigated. Obviously I didn’t think scammers would report this.

again no one on this form nor the investigator seems to be able to answer the real question I’ve been asking which is what is the investigation and what is the process.Is she reaching out the banks and looking into his accounts or looking into us as his family members?

so unless someone has information on that, you are have no use to me on commenting. I’m literally just trying to protect my families hard earned assets . Just because everyone else blindly trusts the government doesn’t mean we do.

while yes I do believe there should be an agency to help elderly members that are actually abused, that is not the case in this family. It’s a waste of everyone’s time and resources. The only thing they have done is terrify my grandparents about something happening to them. I am only trying to put their minds at ease by knowing what we should expect in this scenario.

I will be compliant in the investigation only if there is proper documentation, however none has been supplied to us nor any of our questions answered by the investigator. That’s why we are “paranoid”.

we are already setting up a PoA. So again unless you can answer to the process everyone can keep their opinions to themselves. Because it is not helpful to this situation. I came to the page for help and for my questions to be answered which clearly was mistake since no one on here can answer them rather just give opinions on the situation.

It seems like there's a big chunk of the story that's missing here.
 
You say: "My grandpa had been hacked several times and someone reported exploitation of him, after answering all of this woman’s questions after she called the cops on me for denying her access to my grandfather." In one sentence, you jump from him being the victim of ID fraud to being the reason for an APS investigation, which is quite a leap.
 
First: and you may not know this, but who is the "someone who reported exploitation of him"? I would say those who "hacked" him did NOT report to APS he was being exploited. Was this someone at his bank? Another family member? The police (after you reported the "hacking")? And who is "this woman" to which you referred? Was this the APS worker assigned to investigate?
 
If someone works for a government agency, ***especially*** if they are assigned to an investigatory job, they are given credentials- ie. a photo ID - to prove who they are and for whom they work. It would have been a simple thing for her to properly ID herself to grandpa; so, if she refused to do so, you were well within your rights to question who she was and to not provide her with information until such a time as you got clarification from her. But now that her ID has been established, then, yes, if you continue to obstruct the investigation, there could be impacts for you, such as criminal charges.
 
Insofar as a government agency "taking" grandpa's money - in this scenario, grandpa being evaluated to see if he is, indeed, able to take care of his own finances, that is something that would have to go before a judge, likely during a hearing for state-appointed guardianship. And that takes loads of time to accomplish, and many, if not most, courts are super reluctant to grant court-appointed guardianship unless it is an absolute last resort, ESPECIALLY in matters financial. So no, APS can't just "grab" grandpa's money and shove him into some hovel of a nursing home based only on the results of one person's investigation without court intervention. If that's your main reason for non-compliance, then you can put your mind at ease, if grandpa is as cognitively with it as you insist he is.
 
Unfortunately, and I speak from personal experience here, when you are tasked to investigate criminal activity, and you see, firsthand, what people do to each other, including greedy family members, you have a tendency to become somewhat jaded. It's not right, but it is human nature. And since, as an investigator, you are so used to people lying to you, you start to expect that everyone is lying to you. Again, it's not right, but it is the nature of investigative work. The only advice I can give you about that is to try not to take it too personally; give the investigator all of the paperwork about the "hack" and try to make any ***reasonable*** accommodations to any requests of the investigating officer; more for your grandpa's sake than yours, so this can get resolved and APS can be out of grandpa's - and by extension - you hair.

My grandfather would never give out any banking information , he is always questioning about any phone calls received at the house. His care for my grandmother is impeccable. He just got retested for his driving ability and passed with flying colors. So your assumption of my grandfather’s cognitive abilities is just, that an assumption and you know what they say about that.

His confusion comes from technology because it’s ever changing and god knows how many different ways and things he has had to learn during his years of life.

He is one of the most capable elders I know. I only step in to help with technology.

If you don’t have any knowledge of the investigation process and what will happen during that process your “advice” is not helpful. I’m looking for someone to answer on what rights we have to protect him and his assets from being sucked up into government, over false reporting of exploitation.

Yes, you'll completely lose control over your loved one's situation, if you continue to be uncooperative with the authorities assigned to investigate.

First of all, it is nonsensical to think these are hackers. You are aware now that they ARE the authorities and they DO wish to investigate.

Apparently there is money missing and it is your claim that "hackers" got it.
You will need to fully cooperate with authorities as they investigate this.
IF you are managing the finances of your elder loved one you need to have been keeping meticulous records of every penny into and out of their accounts and show your documentation and authority (POA?) to manage said accounts.
If your elder has been scammed you will provide best info you are able.
All records will need to be open to authorities.

If you do NOT do this, this is what will happen.
The Investigative team will attempt per their protocol to get your cooperation.
The investigative team will then get a court order
Your non-cooperation will raise one HUGE red flag for them.
Your elder may be made a ward of the state and removed from your care.

Hope you will update us as you negotiate this distressing situation. Wishing you the best of luck. Be open and friendly with these authorities, provide them with whatever you are able, including coffee, tea or milk.

If you are being investigated do not talk to them without a lawyer, even if you are innocent. Do not block the investigation.

Unless you are your Grandfather's PoA and the authority is active (because he has a diagnosis of cognitive/memory impairment) then in the eyes of the law you are not speaking for him or legally able to manage his affairs -- unless he tells them he's given you permission. Even so, the banks won't like it unless you are joint on his accounts and have PoA documents to submit to them.

Without more details I'm not sure what the hacking thing is all about: did someone use his cc? Did they get money from his checking account? What was hacked? His phone? What was cleared up at the bank?

If no one is the PoA for your Grandpa, it is now possible that social services will get him on track for a court-assigned 3rd party legal guardian. This means someone will at least be able to legally manage his affairs and make decisions in his own best interests, but is also means you will be on the outside looking in. You would be most helpful to Grandpa if you had the legal ability to manage his affairs and make decisions for him -- maybe discuss this with the case worker after the investigation.