Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing Focuses On Financial Fraud Ta

CSPAN3 Hearing Focuses On Financial Fraud Targeting Senior Citizens March 2, 2017

Donations, in his spending, into what made him one of washingtons top drug company lobbyists. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Next, a senate panel investigates financial scams targeting Senior Citizens. Well hear from a victim of an irs impersonation telemarketing scheme. Senator Susan Collins of maine chairs the Senate Committee on aging. Good afternoon. That was to wake all of you up. Im pleased to welcome both new and returning members to the committee and im delighted that my good friend, senator casey, will be serving as the committees new Ranking Member during this congress. I want to specifically welcome senator Catherine Cortezmasto from the great state of nevada to the committee. We look forward to having you join our work. And of course, its wonderful to welcome back senator gillibrand whos been so committed to this issue. The issues that we have explored as well. Speaking of senator gillibrand, i understand that her son, theo, is here today. He is doing a special class project so he got an excused absence to be at our hearing today for the project that he is doing. And i know thats going to be a very interesting project. My apologies also that this hearing had to be delayed from when it was first scheduled on february 1st due to a long series of votes on the senate floor. During this congress, this committee will continue its focus on three major issues. First, retirement security. We want to make sure that our seniors has sufficient resources so that they dont outlive their savings or find that their golden years end in poverty. Second, Biomedical Research investments. For diseases like alzheimers and diabetes that disproportionately affect our seniors. And third, financial schemes and other scams targeting Older Americans and that is the subject of todays hearing. Last summer, an 81yearold constituent came into my office in portland, maine, with an alarming story of deception and cruelty. A con artist claiming to be an irs agent had just cheated him out of 8,000. And he narrowly avoided losing 15,000 more. After reporting the crime to the local police, my constituent, philip hatch, and his son, came into my office. My staff gave him a copy of the fraud book that this committee produced last year as well as a special postcard that we created with tips on how to avoid scams. Mr. Hatch told us that the tactics described in the materials provided were exactly those that were used by the scammer. If only he had received that information sooner, he might have recognized the scam and avoided losing his hardearned savings. Mr. Hatch was very willing to testify today and to share his story but Health Issues prevent him from traveling. Instead, he graciously and courageously provided a video in order to share his experience and well see that video in a moment. This episode demonstrates two important points. First, the criminals who prey on our seniors are relentless. They will harass seniors over and over again until they have drained every penny from their life savings. Second, this committees longstanding dedication to fighting fraud against seniors is raising awareness and prompting Enforcement Actions that are making a real difference. We must redouble our efforts to educate seniors, their families and their caregivers. The stakes are extremely high. According to the Government Accountability office, americas seniors lose a staggering 2. 9 billion each year to an evergrowing array of financial exploitation schemes and scams. Todays hearing coincides with the release of our committees 2017 fraud work. Like the book that we published last year, it lists the top ten scams being perpetrated against seniors along with information on how to recognize, avoid and report them. In both years, the irs impersonation scam was the leading offender. These lists reflect the calls made to our committees toll free hotline. In 2015, hotline staff fielded more than 1,100 calls. Last year, the hotlines call volume doubled to more than 2,200 calls. Its clear that our efforts are raising Public Awareness and more important, our efforts are producing real results. I look forward this morning to the testimony of the treasury Inspector Generals Office on recent evolutions in the irs imposter scam such as the demand for payment in itunes gift cards to which mr. Hatch and many others have fallen victim. Raising awareness about the irs scam is particularly timely as we are in the midst of tax filing season. Last may, thanks to the work of our hotline investigators, the i. G. Arrested five individuals in connection with the irs imposter scam. Federal authorities believe that these suspects stole almost 3 million from more than 1,200 victims. In october, 56 individuals and 5 call centers in india were indicted in another important case. In addition to producing criminal charges, these efforts are making it more difficult for criminals to find victims. I also look forward to hearing from the federal trade commission on other scams that are targeting our seniors such as those involving grants, counterfeit checks and romance schemes, which are particularly timely with yesterday being valentines day. As our 2017 fraud book makes clear, while we are certainly making progress, far too many victims are still losing money and often their retirement savings. Law enforcement consumer advocates, area agencies on aging, aarp, and Financial Institutions play vital roles, but alert citizens are still our first and best line of defense. Im proud of our committees work on this crucial issue to help seniors become more aware and more informed and to put criminals on notice that they will be stopped and brought to justice. Im now very pleased to turn to our new Ranking Member, senator casey, for his opening statement. Chairman collins, thank you very much for your leadership and for convening this hearing. The first hearing of the committee on aging. A special committee on aging. For the 115th congress. To discuss senior scams, as she just outlined. Also, i want to thank her for working with me to address issues impacting Older Americans, even before the start of this congress. Id also like to Welcome New Members of the committee. I know right now we have senator cortezmasto here. Were grateful that shes with us. And of course, senator gillibrand whos been with the committee for a number of years. Were grateful for that help, especially on these critically important issues for our families. The aging committee has historically been a committee that fosters both collaboration and bipartisanship on issues facing Older Americans and that was, again, abundantly clear by the voice vote we held off of the senate floor two weeks ago to approve the Committee Budget and the committee rules. And i think i was late for that hearing but i wasnt going to mention that. Somehow my voice got recorded but i want to thank the chairman for that. Its my sincere hope that that will continue and im sure that it will. The future of key programs for Older Americans like medicare, medicaid and others are also critically important to the agenda of this committee. We have a responsibility, i believe, to protect these vital programs for Older Americans. Today, we have the opportunity to hear from experts who will give us testimony on the challenging issue of combatting fraud and scams which, of course, target Older Americans and affect Older Americans as well as their families. Experts testifying today include diane menio from pennsylvania, from a Senior Advocacy organization that i worked with over many years. Carie. And ill talk more about diane in a moment, but i want to thank her and her organizations work for what youve done for years to help those who are potential victims of these kinds of scams. Also pleased to have joined senator collins in releasing a Committee Report detailing the top ten scams targeting our nations seniors that you saw a moment ago. The report is based upon the experiences of more than 2,200 individuals who contacted the committees fraud hotline over the past year. It will inform the work of this Committee Going forward. Also happy to join with the chairman in reintroducing the senior safe act last week. This important legislation both encourages Financial Institutions to disclose suspected exploitation of seniors when they see it and protects them from being sued for making these reports if they have an appropriately trained if they have, i should say, appropriately trained their staff and made good faith reports. In the commonwealth of pennsylvania, more than one in six seniors one in six residents is 65 years and older. In 2015, 22,000 cases of suspected elder abuse and neglect were reported by the Pennsylvania Department of agings protective services program. Thats why last spring i held a field hearing in wilkesbarre, pennsylvania, to hear directly from the constituents, both those affected by scams and those trying to prevent these scams. Just by way of example, a constituent from kingston township told the heartbreaking story of a scam artist attempting to steal the identity and use credit cars of her husband of 43 years after, after his death. The Luzerne County District Attorney highlighted the most common type of scam happening today. At least in that area. The sweepstakes or lottery scam. Victims are promised lottery winnings if they just pay off a sizable socalled taxes and fees upfront. The District Attorney recalled one older victim being scammed out of 85,000 in the hope of retrieving 1 million in fake lottery winnings. While experts struggle to estimate the total Financial Impact of scams targeting seniors, mainly because its so underreported, they know that it adds up to nearly 3 billion a year in lost savings and potentially billions more. It isnt just money thats lost in these scams. Its Older Americans sense of security and financial independence. Its outrageous for people who have worked worked very hard all their lives and are being targeted for their nest eggs when theyre at their most vulnerable and its wrong that seniors still feel afraid to report these schemes. They should not be embarrassed or ashamed. They should know we have their backs and were here to help them fight back. Thats why enforcement is such a critical part of this discussion. While it may not be easy to track down these increasingly sophisticated scammers and their domestic and International Networks and hold them accountable, we must do so for the safety and security of our parents and grandparents. Recently, senator collins and i applauded the federal trade commission and Justice Department settlement with Western Union in which the company admitted to criminal antimoney laundering violations that have disproportionately affected aging americans. This settlement, 586 million in the settlement, will be used to compensate victims of fraud, Western Union agents were complicit in the scam. Well continue to use the spotlight of this committee to both help consumers understand the threat and highlight the need for action. Its for this reason ill continue to fight to ensure that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the resources that it needs, the cfpb houses the only federal office solely focused on sharing Financial Information with seniors, and educating seniors about how to prevent becoming the victim of fraud. Until recently, this office was led by former pennsylvania secretary of aging, nora dowd eisenhower, in the first row of our hearing today. We need to keep up the fight to ensure the Affordable Care act fraud and abuse provisions are in place. We know that the government has realized a recordbreaking 10. 7 billion in recovery of Health Care Fraud in the last 3 years. Increasing having new tools that increased federal sentencing guidelines for Health Care Fraud and on from there. We also know that proposals that i will oppose like block granting medicaid could present states with real challenges when it comes to addressing waste, fraud and abuse in programs. Finally, in order to make in order to continue the good work, i should say, of the witnesses here today, as well as others, and to support our colleagues at the in other parts of the government, Social Security administration and other departments in maintaining a skilled workforce, im seriously concerned about the impact of the federal hiring freeze and how that will affect middleclass families. So i look forward to hearing from our witnesses and, again, want to thank our chairman for gathering us today on this important topic. Thank you very much, senator casey. I want to welcome another new member of our committee, senator marco rubio. Senator rubio represents the state with the highest percentage of Senior Citizens. I represent the state with the oldest median age. Thats because a lot of my seniors go to florida, though they tend to spend exactly six months and one day there. Im not quite sure, but i have a feeling it has to do with taxes. But it it is great to have you as a member of the committee, and i want to welcome back senator warren who was here briefly and im sure will be returning as well. Well now turn to our panel of witnesses. First were going to view a brief video from mr. Philip hatch. He is from portland, maine, and hell share his personal experience dealing with the irs impersonators that i mentioned in my opening statement. Next, well hear from tim camus, he is the Deputy Inspector general for investigations at the u. S. Treasury Departments Office of Inspector General for Tax Administration. That may be one of the longest titles of any witness that we ever have. But his office has done extraordinary work and i want to thank him. Next well welcome back to the committee, lois greisman, associate director of the division of marketing practices at the bureau of Consumer Protection at the federal trade commission. Better known as the ftc. And senator casey has already introduced our final witness for the day, diane menio. Were very happy to have her here, too. Menio. Did i get it right that time . Thank you. I want to thank you all for joining us and well now start with the video. My name is philip hatch. Im 81 years old and im from portland, maine. Born and raised. I received a telephone call, answered the phone and the man said he was a representative from the Internal Revenue service. I said, what can i do to help you . He said, well, weve gone through the records and theres been a mistake here on your returns and you owe us 5,988 and some odd cents. So i said, fine, tell me who i make the check out to and where do i mail it . He says, we cant do that. We have a warrant out for your arrest and the marshals will be in your house within an hour. And i said, well, what would you like me to do to help resolve this . They said you can go to cvs and get those itunes cards and just when you come back, you can read the numbers off to us. I said, that doesnt sound like a very professional way to do it. He said, well, its either that or the marshals coming. If we can do this, we can tell them not to come. So i did, i went and got these little itune cards, came back, read the numbers off them and they said, okay, now, you cant tell anybody about this. I said, what do you mean, i cant tell anybody about this . Im going to tell my guy that makes up my tax returns. Im a little mad at him, you know . He made a mistake. No, dont do that, everything will be taken care of. This started at 4 00 in the afternoon and went on until 8 00 at night. They called me the next day and they said there was a mistake. I said what do you mean a mistake . It wasnt 5,900 and something, 23,000. They had somebody call me on the regular phone, im still on my cell phone, and say that he was a Portland Police officer and that they had a local warrant for my arrest. So i put my son on the phone and he goes, whos this . And they said, well whos this . He goes he gave them a phony name, said he was an fbi agent and they said, whoops, and they hung up. And that was the end of it. But i had already sent in 8,000 to these people. Being in the military and being working for the government and, you know, the government calls up, you say, aye aye, sir, what do you need, can i help you . Okay. Maybe if i hadnt had that background, i wouldnt have been so cooperative, but i was mad, upset that i was taken in. Just give me five minutes in a room alone with those people and id be happy. All i can say is just be wary, you know . You know, just be careful and when it comes to someone going after your money, just say, listen, ill think about it over tonight and you can get back to me tomorrow. And then contact someone and find out. Thats the best advice i could do. As you can see, this is really outrageous and illustrates the lengths to which these criminals will go and a lot of times they do target people who are either isolated or have been in the military. We did a whole

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