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Thelma Furukawa walked into the office, as she had for the past few years, for her check-up. Almost 86 years old, she was well-dressed, her hair and makeup done nicely. Life seemed to be going well — she was smiling and didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

In comparison to other women her age, Thelma didn’t suffer the aches and pains that plague most elderly people. She still had a spring in her step.

“What’s your secret?” I asked her, thinking that I might learn something to share with my other patients.

Thelma explained that she had a lot of friends. They called her all the time. In fact, she was looking forward to this and wanted to get home soon to talk to them.

Older people who suffer from undiagnosed dementia are especially vulnerable to elder fraud.

PF Bentley/Civil Beat

Studies have shown that keeping up communication skills and interacting with family and friends is good for people as they get older — and it is associated with living longer.

So her explanation sounded good. That’s why I was shocked to discover that Thelma was a victim of scam artists who cost her many thousands of dollars.

Her daughter, Adele, brought it to my attention.

She was still aware of the time, date and year, and she made it to her appointments in my office, but she no longer had the capacity to know if someone was fooling her or not.

“Dr. Kozak, “she said, “my mother is being robbed.” Adele had found out by chance. One morning, while Adele was staying over at her mom’s house, a man with an accent called at around 5 a.m. demanding to speak with her mom. He wanted Thelma to wire money to his account, just as she had done before.

The people calling her were from Nigeria, a West African nation world famous for its scams, Jamaica and who knows where else. Thelma was, her daughter recounted, writing up to 100 checks a month to people and wiring money to her “friends.” She was basically giving away all of her savings to an array of scammers. She owed $20,000 on her credit card, her cell phone bill was nearly $1000 due to all the international calls she was receiving on her cell phone.

Her daughter was shocked, and then horrified as she gradually discovered the scale of the problem.

Thelma is not unique, which is why Adele gave permission to use their names in this column. According to the Hawaii City and County Elder Abuse Justice Unit, led by prosecutor Keith Kaneshiro, the numbers of elderly victims of internet, phone and mail scams is rising.

Hundreds of people in Hawaii lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, and that’s only those who report what happened. For each case that is known, according to the Justice Unit website, there are probably 25 cases that go unreported. This means that in recent years, millions of dollars from Hawaii have likely ended up in the hands of such con artists.

Why does this happen?

Seniors are the most vulnerable group of people for scam artists, so they are targeted. And often — and this is the where the health beat component comes in — they are not mentally capable of knowing they are falling for a scam.

Thelma, it turns out, had been working to mask the signs of dementia for a while. She was still aware of the time, date and year, and she made it to her appointments in my office, but she no longer had the capacity to know if someone was fooling her or not.

These people on the phone became her “friends,” or at least that is how it seemed to her.

“There was a whole social component to it,” her daughter explained. The scammers called her mother, got to know her in those conversations and then told her sob stories about their lives so that when they asked her for money, it was friends who were doing so. They directed Thelma to go to the bank to take out money to wire to them or, in some cases, to send checks through the mail.

When Adele called the police, they told her that, since the scam was international, it was “out of their jurisdiction.” There was nothing they could do unless Thelma would be sending more money and if it were to someone in the United States.

Despite the fact that giving money to these people kept her mother busy mentally — and seemed to make her happy — her daughter took drastic action. After all, her mother’s bank account — her life savings — was rapidly emptying.

The scammers called her mother, got to know her in those conversations and then told her sob stories about their lives so that when they asked her for money, it was friends who were doing so.

Adele asked me to write a formal letter declaring Thelma incompetent to handle her own affairs, so that her daughter could take them over. I did.

Adele changed Thelma’s phone number. She also had the ringer on her mother’s phone turned off. That phone now only receives local calls. All of Thelma’s mail is diverted to a box at the post office, so that her mother won’t read it — or send any more checks. The bank was also notified.

Even though Thelma had made a large number of withdrawals, they were all below the dollar amount for cash transfers that trigger the bank to take a closer look.

After all of this, Thelma could not remember much, if anything, of what happened.

Her daughter still worries that the scammers might once again manipulate her mother — and that they continue to get money out of other vulnerable people.

“These people do it because they can get away with it, and someone else has to have fallen for their scam,” Adele said. “They will just get another victim because it’s so easy. ”

Despite all that has happened, Thelma still insists on staying in her own apartment. She’s alone during the day, watching television or laying down to rest. She is no longer the same woman — so engaged and happy all the time — that I used to see.

Her dementia has progressed, and her interest in social interaction has diminished. She’s on medication to help, but it can only postpone the inevitable. Sooner or later, she will no longer be able to live alone.

Her daughter is prepared for the coming transition.

Financially, neither of them have any idea of how much money was scammed out of Thelma, and Adele isn’t sure she wants to know. But it will have an impact on the whole family far into the future.

“It just has to stop before anyone else is a victim,” Adele said emphatically.

The truth is that it could, and does, happen to many people — aunties, friends, parents, loved ones — even my patient, Thelma Furukawa.

If you want to report potential elder abuse — financial or otherwise — you can contact the Elder Abuse Justice Unit at elderabuse@honolulu.gov or notify Adult Protective Services.