The Scams Against Older Adults Advisory Group, under the direction of the Federal Trade Commission, is scheduled to have its first meeting on September 29 at 2:30 p.m., and will be livestreamed on the FTC’s website.
The Stop Senior Scams Act, passed in March, established the group, which includes representatives of various advocacy groups such as AARP and AmeriCorps, and government institutions such as the Departments of Justice and Treasury.
The group is charged with expanding consumer education, improving industry training, identifying new technology to prevent scams and developing research on fraud prevention for financial advisers.
A Senate Aging Committee hearing held Thursday announced the group’s upcoming schedule and also emphasized seniors’ unique vulnerability to financial crime.
Professor Marti of the University of Minnesota testified at the hearing that seniors’ heightened vulnerability to fraud is largely because seniors are more socially isolated than younger people and therefore have fewer people who can alert them to a scam, and often have fewer technical skills and suffer from cognitive decline as they age.
The SEC recommends that financial firms train their employees on the signs of cognitive decline in older clients.
DeLiema also noted that seniors tend to lose more money when scammed than younger people, and are particularly vulnerable to romance scams, or scams in which someone poses as a romantic partner to…
