Fraud targeting American seniors ‘massive’ problem, AG Barr says
Attorney General William Barr holds a press conference after the DOJ promised to crack down on scams targeting seniors.
The U.S. government is looking to help shield elderly Americans – and their lifesavings – from a growing number of criminals targeting them.
Attorney General William Barr announced on Thursday that the Justice Department would be executing an “all-out attack” on fraud against seniors.
“This is a particularly despicable crime and it is a massive and growing problem,” Barr said during a press conference. Barr noted that oftentimes because of their age, the victims don’t have the chance to recover from the events.
This year’s sweep includes charges against more than 260 defendants who allegedly defrauded more than 2 million people of more than $775 million.
The Justice Department said its sweep last year uncovered cases involving more than 1 million victims, who were swindled out of more than $500 million.
The focus during this year’s probe was tech-support scams – where the criminal pretends to work for a company like Apple and tells the victim, for example, that his or her device has a virus. The criminal says it can be fixed for a fee and access to the device.
He also said he was planning on meeting with technology companies like Apple and Google to foster a working relationship to help protect elderly Americans.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a recent report that it received 3 million consumer complaints last year, including more than 1.4 million fraud reports – with people claiming to have lost money in about one-quarter of those reports.
Overall, Americans reported losing $1.48 billion – an increase of nearly 40 percent when compared with 2017.
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Amounts reported stolen tended to vary by age: When those ages 70 and over lost money, the median value was $751, compared with a median of $400 for people in their 20s. The median was even higher for those at least 80 years old – at a whopping $1,700.
The top reported cases were imposter scams – where the fraudster pretends to be someone you trust to convince you to send money – debt collection and identity theft.