Courtesy of Florence Klein, Founder, SilverPlanet.com

Seniors stealing from seniors. What should be unthinkable is exactly what an Overland Park, Kansas, business was doing.

Grant Wilms, 44, his father, Hermann Wilms, 75, and Kenneth Opstein, 87, were sentenced in February for their roles in a scheme that bilked about 2,500 elderly victims nationwide out of around $1.2 million between August 2008 and July 2009. Their company was ASP Inc., which—along with its predecessor, National Health Care Discount (NHCD)—offered discounts on prescription drugs and dental work.

Customers would turn over their bank or credit card information to the companies to get the discount card. But company officials withdrew more money out of their accounts than they were authorized to—usually $80 to $110 at a time.

According to Fox 4 News in Kansas City, a woman in Georgia complained that NHCD continued to charge her mother-in-law for her deceased husband’s discount card for five years after he died. Another woman complained she wanted to cancel the card, but NHCD took the money from her checking account when she didn’t pay the bill. She was forced to close down her bank account.

“This type of case drives home the necessity to review your bank statements and credit card statements on a monthly basis to monitor for unauthorized activity,” said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe in August, when charges were originally filed against the three. “We strongly encourage the elderly and their caretakers to be especially vigilant as the elderly are often targets of these types of schemes.”