"There's a huge number out there that we're not getting to and that's frightening."
Ms Lynn said those were at the extreme end of the abuse scale but it continued to happen.
"People need to understand that it's not happening somewhere else. It's happening right here in Wanganui."
She said Sue Evans, who heads Age Concern Wanganui's elder abuse and neglect prevention team, was also dealing with cases where young women have been taking advantage of older men living alone.
"They're offering these men all sorts of things in return for the use of the man's car, and then getting access to their money. We've had several cases like that over the last four years so it's not uncommon," Ms Lynn said.
She said there were also ongoing issues around enduring power of attorney, especially with family members not understanding how that process worked.
"Many think that it gives them control of the elderly person's bank cards and chequebook but it doesn't mean that at all. But suddenly that means grandma or granddad has got nothing because the person with power of attorney has taken absolute control and cleaned out their bank accounts," she said.
She said banks in Wanganui were very good at spotting "worrying signs" with people's accounts.
"They've called us when they've become concerned about someone coming into the bank with someone else's eftpos card."
Ms Lynn said while some elderly were an easy mark for financial abuse, others who retained all their faculties were just as vulnerable and were being targeted.
"The problem is they often don't realise they've been duped until it's way too late."
Another rip-off was being perpetrated by carers looking after older people.
"The carers are people the elderly get in to help them. These carers are paid by the state to do that work yet we've had instances where the carers have charged their client money."
She said elderly people were often reticent about reporting abuse or asking for help. But she urged family, friends or neighbours seeing any sort of elder abuse to contact Age Concern confidentially.
Ms Lynn said promotions like the "It's Not OK" family violence campaign tended to ignore the elderly. "Partner abuse never seems to include people over the age of 65 in those campaigns. But elderly people are part of families and they need to be considered in any campaigns about family violence."