Deutsch Bill Would Protect Seniors From Telephone Scams

To protect the elderly from a surge in telephone scams, City Councilman Chaim Deutsch has introduced legislation requiring the Department of Consumer Affairs to educate seniors and their caregivers about how to recognize the frauds.

“Concerns about deceitful telemarketing calls are increasingly common,” Deutsch told his City Council colleagues last week, according to a press release. “This valuable information will target our senior population and their caregivers, explaining how – as potential victims – they can protect themselves from fraud.”

The bill would require consumer affairs to undertake outreach programs informing people sixty years of age and older about how to recognize scams, protect themselves, and report the incidents to authorities. The bill also promises the information will be available in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Haitian Creole, Russian and Italian.

There’s been a surge in telephone scams across the country over the past several years. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 1.2 million fraud-related complaints in 2015. Of those who reported the method of contact, 75 percent said they were reached by phone.

Seniors appear to be most vulnerable victims of these scams. People over the age of 60 made up more than one-third of fraud victims last year, according to the FTC.

Scammers use a range of cons to cheat seniors. From posing as an IRS agent threatening their victims with jail time if they to don’t pay owed taxes to pretending to be a grandchild claiming they’ve been arrested overseas and need to by wired bail money immediately, according to the FBI.