On the issue of strengthening the criminal protection of the elderly from fraud

The article examines the problem of strengthening the criminal protection of senior citizens from fraudulent crimes, the dynamics of which has shown steady growth in recent years. The elderly represent a socially vulnerable category of the population, which is due to age-related psychophysiological characteristics, reduced critical perception of information, social isolation, as well as insufficient digital literacy. These factors significantly increase the risk of senior citizens being involved in various fraudulent schemes, especially in the context of the rapid development of remote technologies and digital methods of deception. It is noted that fraud committed against the elderly has an increased degree of public danger compared to similar crimes against non-elderly adults. This danger manifests itself not only in a greater amount of material damage, but also in deep social and moral harm caused to victims, who often lose their life savings and sense of security. At the same time, the current norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation do not contain special qualifying features that take into account the special vulnerability of elderly citizens and the high level of public danger of these crimes, which objectively reduces the effectiveness of criminal law response.