Easy, unwitting victims

HOW COULD SOMEONE defraud another of Social Security disability benefits?

"When you've got people who are vulnerable and with diminished mental capacity, they're easy targets," said Ted Walkenhorst, a lawyer at the Jenkintown-based Disability Benefits Law Center. "Many times, the victims don't know they're being victimized."

Benefits for someone classified as "mentally retarded" are paid to "a representative payee," he said. He did not know how the victims in the Tacony case were classified, but he said that anyone eligible for disability benefits may designate someone else as representative payee.

He said that Linda Ann Weston could have gone with a victim to a Social Security office, claiming to be that person's guardian. The victim may have agreed to make Weston a representative payee, and an overworked Social Security claims officer may not have found anything amiss, he said.

Walkenhorst said he believed that this type of fraud is rare.

Ella Davis, 84, grandmother of victim Herbert Knowles, 40, who was found in the sub-basement of the Tacony apartment building, has told the Daily News that Knowles was trusting. "He would meet someone and put his confidence in" that person, she said.

She said that Weston befriended Knowles in Norfolk, Va., ended up taking care of him and had his Social Security checks changed to her name. "He probably agreed to it" because he has the mental capacity of a child, she said.

- Julie Shaw