Last week, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum received a text from her bank asking if she’d recently spent $750 at Walmart.
She hastily texted back “NO,” and almost immediately her phone rang.
Rosenblum, who’s made consumer protection a priority, spent 10 minutes on the phone.
She grew increasingly suspicious.
The caller, frustrated with her questions, hung up.
The call was typical of fraudsters who have stolen billions of dollars a year from Americans. Rosenblum said she opted to go public with her account to warn Oregonians that if it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone.
“You feel embarrassed, like, how could I not recognize the signs of a scam? And here I am, I actually teach people about how to avoid getting scammed. And initially, it didn’t even cross my mind,” she told the Capital Chronicle. “I just want to get people’s attention.”
First elected in 2012, Rosenblum is involved in several consumer protection initiatives. For years, she and her office’s consumer education director have traveled the state presenting to groups of primarily older Oregonians about how to avoid getting scammed.
In 2019, she formed the Consumer Privacy Task Force to recommend legislation to protect consumer privacy. It is currently devising a bill that would require the registration of data brokers who sell personal information, allowing consumers to opt out.
Rosenblum is optimistic the legislation, which is similar to…
