MOUNT VERNON — Knox County is an aging county, with roughly 25 percent of its population seniors aged 60 and over.
That means one-fourth of Knox County residents are vulnerable to exploitation through various scams.
Adult Protective Services (APS), through Knox County Job & Family Services, helps protect seniors from exploitation, abuse, and neglect.
KCJFS uses $125,000 in senior levy funding to contract with Ohio District 5 Area on Aging for APS case management.
AOA supervisor Richard Meeker said that although neglect remains the primary reason seniors need adult protective services locally, exploitation has surpassed neglect statewide.
“Some of that is because of a good job with awareness,” he told the county commissioners last month. “People used to suffer in silence. There was embarrassment. Things just weren’t being reported. And then, also, exploitation is just on the rise.”
“We are still working to let folks know that exploitation is out there. It’s real. It can happen, and it can happen to anybody.”
Richard Meeker, Adult Protective Services
Meeker said no one is immune to scams because scammers work on the emotional center of the brain. Seniors are afraid, lonely, or isolated and want to form a connection.
“That’s what they’re tapping into,” he said.
“We’re trying to provide support to pick them back up after that’s happened, because we’ve had some individuals as exploitation rises that say, ‘I can’t believe that I fell for that.’ They recognize it was a scam.”
Meeker said after the situation is resolved, often the senior cannot recoup their money. APS steps in and helps them pay a utility bill or another bill while they recover.
Wholesaling: a new threat to seniors
A new form of exploitation on the rise is wholesaling.
Wholesaling is where someone makes an offer on a house but is not the actual buyer. Instead, the wholesaler sells the purchase agreement to a third party, pocketing a fee.
Wholesaling can lead to housing insecurity and neglect.
The Ohio Legislature passed, and Gov. Mike DeWine signed, Senate Bill 155 in December 2025. The bill creates transparency about a wholesale transaction.
“So now these wholesalers have to disclose the fact that they are trying to profit from the home. And the individual has to sign that they’ve been informed,” Trae Turner, chief of planning and development with the Area Agency on Aging, said.
Scott Boone, director of Knox County JFS, said it is frustrating because people have the right to self-determination. That means seniors sometimes decline help from APS.
“When the answer is no, the answer is no, unless it’s an extreme case … where there’s some other maybe cognitive issues in play,” he said.
Meeker said one of the biggest things seniors can do to prevent exploitation and help themselves is to stay active in the community.
“The more folks can socialize, that helps a lot with quality of life. Number one, that helps my mental health. That has a profound impact on my physical health and well-being as well. And that can help me to prevent exploitation,” he said.
“Unfortunately we’ve seen some people who when having a conversation with an individual recognized that they were scammers they were talking to, but they didn’t care because that person was talking to them.”
Collaboration key in helping Knox County seniors
Adult Protective Services had 345 referrals in 2025. Of those, the agency opened 258 cases.
Collaboration is a key component of helping Knox County seniors through the program.
Meeker said he always appreciates the amount of assistance APS receives from community partners.
Local partners include KCJFS, Habitat for Humanity, The Station Break, and senior centers in Centerburg and Fredericktown.
“We’ve been able to utilize some of our behavioral health partners with New Directions and Behavioral Health Partners themselves,” Meeker said.
“The Winter Sanctuary was very helpful for us during those months as housing continued to be a little bit of a concern for some of our older adults that we encountered.”
APS also assists seniors with utility payments, extermination services, hotel stays to prevent homelessness, and appliances.