Senate Aging Committee to Examine New Developments In Fight Against Senior Fraud

Wednesday, February 1, 2:30 PM, Dirksen Room 562

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Bob Casey, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Aging Committee, will hold a hearing on Wednesday, February 1, 2017, at 2:30 pm, in SD-562, titled, “Stopping Senior Scams: Developments in Financial Fraud Affecting Seniors.”

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), financial fraud targeting older Americans costs seniors an estimated $2.9 billion annually. These scams range from the IRS impersonation scam to the “Jamaican Lottery Scam” and the prevalent “Grandparent Scam.” While all different in form, they employ threatening and misleading tactics that rob seniors of their hard-earned life savings.

This week’s hearing will update the Committee on the work done by law enforcement officials to combat these and other types of fraud, hear testimony from an IRS impersonation scam victim, and release updated 2016 statistics for the Committee’s comprehensive anti-fraud resource for seniors, Fighting Fraud: U.S. Senate Aging Committee Identifies Top 10 Scams Targeting Our Nation’s Seniors.

Witnesses for the hearing will include:

• Philip Hatch, IRS Impersonation Scam victim (Portland, ME), by video

• Tim Camus, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Washington, D.C.)

• Lois Greisman, Associate Director, Division of Marketing Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission (Washington, D.C.)

• Diane Menio, Executive Director, Center for the Advocacy for the Rights & Interests of the Elderly (Philadelphia, PA), accompanied by Charlotte Kitler, Senior Medicare Patrol Volunteer, Center for the Advocacy for the Rights & Interests of the Elderly (Philadelphia, PA)