Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: FTC testifies on efforts to stop fraud affecting older Americans, (Oct 23, 2015)

By Michael Menzhuber, J.D., LL.M.

The FTC, in its testimony today before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, provided an overview of its multi-faceted approach to protecting older Americans from fraud.

Testifying on behalf of the agency, Daniel Kaufman, Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said that the agency has, in the last two years, focused its law enforcement efforts on combatting technical support and health care related scams, both of which injure older Americans. According to Kaufman, fraudsters engaged in these schemes typically fabricate an affiliation with well-known businesses or government agencies to gain consumers’ trust.

With respect to technical support schemes, the number of complaints has risen and these scams appear to disproportionately affect seniors. From January through August 2015, of the 18,000 people who reported technical support scams and provided their age, 76 percent were over the age of 50 and 56 percent were over the age of 60.

The testimony also highlighted, with respect to health care scams, how con-artists use false claims of affiliation with the government to trick people into providing their bank account information over the phone and then use that information to take money directly from consumers’ bank accounts.

According to the testimony, while older Americans are not necessarily defrauded at higher rates than younger consumers, the FTC has, since 2005, brought more than 30 cases against defendants that have specifically targeted or disproportionately affected older Americans. The types of frauds that injure older consumers include: (1) sweepstakes, prize promotions and lotteries; (2) timeshare sales and re-sales; (3) investments, business opportunities and work-from-home programs; and (4) charitable donations.

The testimony also outlined the FTC’s education and outreach programs that reach tens of millions of people every year, including the recently created “Pass It On” program which provides seniors with information, in English and Spanish, on a variety of scams targeting older consumers. Also noted in the testimony was the agency’s work with the Elder Justice Coordinating Council to help protect seniors; and the AARP Foundation, whose peer counselors provided fraud-avoidance advice last year to more than a thousand seniors who had filed complaints with the FTC about certain frauds, including lottery, prize promotion, and grandparent scams.

The FTC’s law enforcement efforts with other countries to combat cross-border fraud, and its collaboration with criminal law enforcement to achieve a broader impact, was described in the testimony. A recent case involving fraud against older Americans resulted in criminal prosecution of the defendants, was also noted.

News: ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews