This runs an hour and 20 minutes. We convene to discuss something of utmost important to the committee on aging. Fraud against seniors. Con artists will pose as federal and state agencies to steal benefits. Theyll falsify, i should say, romantic relationships to gain a seniors trust. And by way of a third example, peddle fake Health Insurance and cures for the virus. They are also using new Payment Methods making losses difficult to trace. The federal trade Commission Reports tbift cards are the main Payment Method used by scammers to request and steal money from older dulls. In 2021, 27 of adults 60 and older who lost money paid a scammer using a gift card or a reloadable card. Peertopeer payment apps like zelle, venmo, cashapp and paypal are also increasingly used by scammers. Today, aurelia will share her experience with a peertopeer payment scam. Her story is all too common. Scammers request payments from seniors by way of these apps have increased exponentially from 2 in 2017 to 10 in 2021. Thats why i recently led a letter to the Consumer Financial protection bureau, urging the center to move forward with guidance to protect older adults from con artists using these apps. Id like to thank members of the committee who joined the letter, senator warner and senator gillibrand. Im also proud that my stop senior scam act was signed into law in march of this year. Thanks to senator moran, senator kelly and Ranking Member scott for working alongside me and others to pass this importance legislation. Thank you, Ranking Member scott, for that work. This law creates a senior scams Advisory Council to ensure that banks and other businesses have both the information and the tools that they need to train employees to identify and respond to scams. Were grateful to the federal trade commission for its work to lead this effort and pleased that this new council will hold its first convening one week from today. Finally, Ranking Member scott and i are releasing our 2022 fraud book. Her it is, ill hold up both versions, in english and spanish, were releasing this as many of you know, weve done this on an annual basis. But this is the 2022 book which arms older adults with the information that they need to protect themselves from scammers. This new and improved fraud book is available today in both english and in spanish. The fraud book highlights the 10 most common scams reported to the committees fraud hotline, which is staffed monday through friday, 9 00 a. M. To 5 00 p. M. Eastern time. Seniors and their loved ones can seek assistance with reporting fraud and getting connected to resources. The frauds hotline toll free number is 18553039470. Ill read that again. 18553039470. Im proud of the committees bipartisan leadership on this issue but we know that we have a lot more work to do. We have a sacred duty to protect seniors and their families against these scammers, these criminals. I look forward to continuing to Work Together on this and ill now turn to Ranking Member scott for his opening statement. Mr. Scott thank you, chairman casey, thank you for working in a bipartisan fashion on issues that impact our seniors across the country. One thing about this country we can all celebrate is that this is a bipartisan effort to protect our seniors every step of the way. We need more bipartisans in congress, without any question. I thank you for your leadership. I think its important to once again reinforce the hotline. This is the 10th anniversary of the aging committees hotline, fraud hotline. The number again as chairman casey has said a couple of times is 8553039470. So important for our seniors to know that there is help out there and one of the easiest ways for our seniors to find that help is to call the hotline when necessary. Seniors often live alone or isolated. Loved ones are not there for them. I would say when you think about the scams, the devastating effect it has on people with fixed incomes, its undeniable, its really hard to replace income when youre on a fixed income. On average, seniors lose about 34,200 for every instance of a scam or fraud. In 2021, according to the f. T. C. , scammers stole 1 billion from our seniors. A billion dollars. In 2021 alone in South Carolina, south carolinians lost 48. 4 million. To scams and frauds. The consequences to the scams and fraudsters are many for our seniors, including losing purchasing power. Trying to maintain good credit. Affording the cost of their homes. Losing sleep. It is an absolute catastrophic experience when one experiences a scam or fraud. Scams also have unseen consequences linking seniors to leav leaving seniors depressed, embarrassed. For example, joe, a navy veteran, received a call from two scammers impersonating Law Enforcement. They told her several people in texas had stolen her Social Security number and opened up checking accounts. In order for her to avoid the ramifications of Law Enforcement she had to send them 22,000 in cash. Remember that this all happened over a single day. The sense of urgency and the pressure plays on these seniors to make fast decisions that have financial consequences that are devastating happen so quickly. Under this immense pressure, she sent two packages of cash. One to baltimore, maryland. The other to little rock, arkansas. These people made her feel as though she had no other choice. The scam not only puts her at tremendous financial loss but also caused her to withdraw from family and friends. Frauds like the ones well discuss today are so common each survivors story is unique on how it affect theirs lives. As the chairman said, we have our 2022 bipartisan fraud book both in spanish and english detailing common scams and how to fight back. Identity theft was the second most reported fraud to the committees fraud hotline. Further, this years fraud book provides critical information and tips on how to protect yourself. According to the f. T. C. , Identity Theft was the number one scam in South Carolina in 2021, with 17,642 cases. One in four Identity Theft victims reported experiencing sleep problems, increased anxiety, depression and anger, even six months after the crime. Scammers arent slowing down. Since 2002, weve seen a 1,600 increase in reported scams. A 1,600 increase in reported scams. Unbelievable. In 2020, f. T. C. Reported 4. 9 million scams. In 2021, 5. 7 million, an 18 increase. Im proud that the stop seniors scams act helps our seniors and next week well see the first hearing. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Mr. Casey thank you, Ranking Member scott. Before i move to well have introductions of our witnesses. I want to acknowledge members who are here already. Senator collins, former chair of the committee. Hes been part of the and who has been part of the effort of producing and publicizing our fraud books in the past. Were grateful for her leadership. Senator blumenthal is here from the state of connecticut, as well as senator scott from florida. Let me move to our witnesses. Our first witness is dr. Marty delima, an assistant professor at the university of minnesotas school of social work. Shes an interdisciplinary he is an assistant professor at the university of Minnesota School of social work. She is an interdisciplinary a professional with a specialization in financial victimization through fraud and scams. She has collaborated with a variety of Financial Institutions, aging organizations, and federal agencies like the federal trade commission. Doctor, welcome. Our second witness is nancy she is a senior dull protective Services Specialist for the sandy hook county in california. She has dedicated her career to advocating for all adults. She is safeguarding their finances and ensuring their safety. In 2021, she received the chief investigators award from san diego District Attorney bureau of investigations. That is for her efforts and recovering 75,000 for seniors in her community. Our third witness is in pennsylvania. Born and raised in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. Formerly a School Bus Driver and health care worker. She is now retired. She has two daughters, three grandchildren, and to a grandchildren. She will share her experience today with a scam air. They impersonate her bank. These are the steps that you took to respond of the scam. We are grateful that you are with us. I will then turn to the Ranking Member to introduce our fourth and final witness. Thank you. It is my pleasure to introduce a fellow sucker lineup to some. It is my pleasure to talk about she resided here for the last 32 years. She was a retired nurse holding a masters in nursing. A veteran of the air force. Thank you for your service. She is also a member of st. Marks United Methodist church. Serving her community as a vessel of gods love. Her most important job, however, she is a living grandmother to five grandkids ranging from the ages of 5 to 26 years old. I hear that being a grandmother is better than being a mother. I hear that rumors all of the time. Im not sure if it is completely true. Anyways, in april of 2021, scammers con their way into her computer in Online Banking. That resulted in a loss of 20,000. This crime hit her particularly hard. Both financially and emotionally. Her testimony todays about her personal experience being a survivor of these scams. I want to thank you for this year. Your story does take courage to step forward into the light and to help other folks avoid situations like the one that you found yourself in. And i am so proud that you are helping other folks through your story. Thank you so much for your willingness to be here today. God bless you. Thank you. Well said. We are introducing one of the witnesses. We will begin our testimony now. You may begin. Good morning. Thank you chairman. That is the Ranking Member scott. Thank you to the members of the committee. My name is dr. Marty i am an instant professor at the school of social work at the university of minnesota. I connect weiser john fraud and strategy. I hope safeguard American Financial security. You invited me today to describe the Current Trends in consumer scams are affecting older adults. We can use Consumer Complaint data compiled by the federal trade commission to explore these trends. Government imposture scams have been in the top five most reported categories of not affecting most adults multiple years in a row. The Government Agency being impersonated has changed over time. The irs, sesay, fbi, cms, and so on. The challenge is to predict which agencies clothes the perpetrators are gonna try and next. And to create Consumer Education campaigns that are robust to these changes. Throughout the pandemic, business impersonation scams grew exponentially. Particularly retail companies. It is the romance scams that lead the pack in terms of personal financial cost. In a study that i connected with the ftc, we found that the media report of losses for consumers in their 70s and 80s was 10,000. Quadruple the losses reported by young adults. We can also use the reporting data to look at methods of money transfer. Today, Bank Transfer and cryptocurrency is the clear front runner in terms of the losses. Together, these methods account for one and a half billion in stolen funds. More than double the losses of all other Payment Methods combined. It is a great deal of money. Research indicates that fewer than 3 of consumers report this to Law Enforcement. The true losses are many magnitude creator. Among older adults, as you have said, gift cards are still the most common method of money transfer. Gift cards are favored by perpetrators because they are easily available to consumers. They are anonymous. Theyre instantly redeemable. And they have very few controls. Retail sales clerks are often the only individuals in position to intervene. In my research supported by aarp, my graduate students and i interviewed Retail Store Managers from around the united states. We surveyed cashiers. Be visited local stores to document what is being done. We found that most major retailers have some type of signage warning customers about gift card scams. The messages were typically small. They replayed the divide level. They were completely lost in a sea of give courage competing for attention. Less than half of our cashiers reported that there were any limits on the purchase amounts. The store manager said they did not receive any formal training from their employers on what to say to intervene. Ultimately, they felt they are not authorized to deny give car purchases at the customer assists. Even if they are certain is it a scam. As the saying goes in retail, the customers decaying. In light of these findings, i believe that more education for flatline retail staff is warranted. More importantly, we need to demand action from the gift card payment industry. That includes the payment processors any card issuers. These are the entities that can see when the money is being loaded on to a car by customers in stories. They will be immediately redeemed by perpetrators in the remote location. Additional controls might include temporary hold on suspicious attempts to redeem high valued cards. That would give customers more time to identify and report fraud. Lower transaction limits could also reduce the loss amount. They could make it guards less attractive to fraud criminals. Consumer education is also critical. That is forewarned is for armed. We cannot ask individuals to shoulder the burden of Consumer Protection alone. In conjunction with education, we need the private sector to step up. Legislation like the trace act is a fantastic example of how phone companies with help from congress can limit unwanted and fraudulent goals. We need Similar Solutions to be applied to other methods of contact. To bogus Text Messages to fake social media profiles. We also need to expand the senior safe act. This will encourage all types of Financial Institutions to act quickly. We placed temporary hold on sponsors suspicious transactions and report fraud to authorities. Lastly, basement we are seeing, with the most recent reporting the data, cryptocurrency is playing an outsized role only fraud landscape. The fraud playbook has evolved. They are moving into new, too complex, and underregulated environments. Step need to be taken now to curtail the ride of crypto fraud. In summary, you are so fortunate to sit in this where area policy making. This is where consumers, both sides of the aisle, and the private sector, they all want the same thing. To stop criminals from exploiting americans. Lets advocate for greater investment from the private sector. We Want Companies to be proactive when they suspect a fraud. Instead of reactive when that money is already gone. Through these and other actions, we can show consumers that the federal government is committed to keeping their money safe, holding the perpetrators accountable, and restoring trust in the marketplace. Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony. We will move next to our second witness. Good morning. Good morning to the members of the committee. My name is nancy. I am the Senior Protective Service investigator at the financial unit in california. Thank you for a limited join you today to discuss the topic that i am passionate about and dedicated to. This is the fight against fraud and scams. Over the past year, i have been privileged to be attached to the San Diego Task force. It is a partnership of the san diego District Attorneys office. The fbi, local Law Enforcement, and the county. We are seeking to impact scams against older adults. The county is home to over 3. 3 million people. Of that, approximately 680,000 or individuals or the age of 60. From 2000 to 2030, it is projected that adults 60 and older will increase by 100 and 30 . The general population will increase just 38 . That means that one in four people and san diego will be over 60 years of age. These numbers are real. We have witnessed firsthand the increase in abs reversals over the years. Particularly in cases with scams and financial abuse. From june 2021 to july 2022, over 1200 abs kamala cases were referred to our office. And i stayed estimated loss of over 34 million. It is clear that we have an issue. This is an issue that are most vulnerable population, who have spent years of hardware except for their goal and years, they are now being received having their life savings stolen under the false pretenses by vicious perpetrators. The ap s is frequently i respond to these victims. We help them start the process to potentially recover losses. We want them to bring a sense of security. Back we are also protecting them from future exploitation. Youre not investigation, we must build a poor, gain their trust, and assess their safety. All while ensuring that we gather all the necessary evidence to bring a case in the next level. What is the next level . That is what you may ask. As we know, without evidence, there is no. Primary bs team members along with the local Law Enforcement agencies and san diego have been trained to gather key details. How do these scammers contact you . What company do they represent . W