Fighting Fraud For Older Americans Gets A Big Boost

It never ceases to amaze and disgust me, the number of ways scammers take money from innocent people. I often wonder, just how does a person just come up with almost foolproof ways to steal, but obviously, there are and have always been dishonest persons in the human race, and it's never going to end.

We hear a lot of news about elder fraud. Conning an elderly person who trusts humanity, and/or may not realize they are about to be scammed out of their hard-earned money, is the lowest of the low.

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The U.S. Department of Justice has described these instances as Grandparent Scams. It's where scammers call an elderly person claiming to be a relative in need of money, due to one of many reasons including being in jeopardy or under arrest.

The U.S. Department of Justice has recently expanded the Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force to protect elder persons from these scams, adding 14 additional U.S. Attorney’s Offices. There will now be 20 offices, and that includes all of the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in seven states including New York State.

The U.S. Department of Justice states that this "...will help to coordinate the Department’s ongoing efforts to combat sophisticated fraud schemes that target or disproportionately impact older adults."

In addition, the department continues to do its best to get any funds lost, back to the elder fraud victims. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that since September 2021, just under "550,000 fraud victims were notified that they could be eligible to receive a payment. More than 150,000 of those victims cashed checks totaling $52 million,* and thousands more are eligible to receive checks."

[via United States U.S. Department of Justice]