Schemes targeting seniors include fraudulent investment plans, prizes and sweepstakes, internet fraud, charity scams, predatory home loans, telemarketing and mail fraud, and Ponzi schemes
The Seniors Fraud Prevention Act would help fight scams designed to strip seniors of their assets by helping educate seniors about fraud schemes and improve monitoring and response to fraud complaints
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Susan Collins (R-ME) announced that they have reintroduced their bipartisan legislation to crack down on fraud targeted at seniors. Schemes targeting seniors include fraudulent investment plans, prizes, sweepstakes, internet fraud, charity scams, predatory home lenders, telemarketing and mail fraud, and Ponzi schemes. The Seniors Fraud Prevention Act would help fight scams designed to strip seniors of their assets by helping educate seniors about fraud schemes and improve monitoring and response to fraud complaints.
“We must ensure all Americans have safety and dignity in their senior years,” said Klobuchar. “New fraudulent schemes designed to target seniors appear almost daily, and seniors can watch their entire life savings disappear in scams that are designed to target their assets. This bipartisan legislation will improve efforts to combat fraud targeting seniors so we can make fighting scams against our seniors a priority.”
“As the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, combatting elder fraud has long been one of my top priorities. Though we have held hearings exposing and examining a number of these scams in order to help protect seniors, much more remains to be done,” said Collins. “The Seniors Fraud Prevention Act would help enhance fraud monitoring, increase consumer education, and strengthen the complaint tracking system to help prevent seniors from being robbed of their hard-earned savings through threatening and manipulative scams.”
The Seniors Fraud Prevention Act would help protect seniors from fraud schemes by strengthening the reporting system to ensure complaints of fraud are handled quickly by the appropriate law enforcement agencies. The bill would also require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the agency responsible for handling consumer complaints, coordinate with other agencies to monitor the market for fraud schemes targeting seniors. In addition, the bill would require the FTC to distribute information to seniors, their families, and their caregivers that explain how to recognize fraud schemes and how to contact law enforcement authorities in the event that a senior is targeted. Klobuchar and Collins have introduced this bill in the three previous Congresses. In 2016, the legislation passed the Senate Commerce Committee without opposition and in 2017, the legislation passed the Senate.
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