Policymakers gathered in Annapolis on Monday to warn older Marylanders about the risks of financial fraud and suggest ways to avoid it.
“At the speed and rate that scam artists are designing new methods to trick and steal, we need everyone in the work of ending this trickery and robbery,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said at a news conference hosted by the AARP of Maryland. “Older Marylanders are not victims, however, you are attractive targets for scam artists and criminals.”
Karen Morgan of AARP Maryland said that the state reported 1,985 incidents of fraud last year that impacted adults 60 and older.
Brown, a Democrat, knows the severity of elder fraud scams. His father fell victim to a scheme that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because of embarrassment, Brown didn’t find out until after his death.
The attorney general now warns his 97-year-old mother tocall him “when in doubt.”
“Every day when I walk out of the door, I tell her one thing in jest: ‘Don’t take any wooden nickels, Mom,’” he said with a laugh.
According to the AARP, 1 in 5 adults over 65 across the United States has fallen victim to fraud schemes.
Judith Boivin, 79, of Montgomery County, is the main caregiver for her husband, who has Parkinson’s disease. She was targeted by scammers posing as FBI agents from fall 2023 to January, when she received calls twice a day, every day, convincing her that she was “an asset” and “a critical part of an active investigation” in a mission to intercept fentanyl trafficking. She was told by scammers that her Social Security number was being used to open bank accounts and launder money across state lines.
The scam was awful, she said, and the aftermath has changed the trajectory of her life “permanently, now and forever.”
“There is little time to recoup the over-half-million [dollars] in cash I lost in IRAs and savings,” she said.
Boivin, who had medical issues related to aging before the scam, has since experienced heightened blood pressure, an amnesiac episode, tension in her neck, migraine-like headaches, irritability andanxiety, and has been to the emergency room twice.
“I am reminded of it every single day, every time I interact with money,” she said. “It’s like trying to heal a wound that’s constantly being pried open.”
Evelyn Cusson, an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, said older adults are victimized in a variety of ways, from romance schemes to lottery fraud to impostor schemes like Boivin’s — which deprives them of their resources and choices by leveraging technology.
Cusson said the Department of Justice has partnered with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and other law enforcement agencies to prosecute scammers targeting older adults.
She also stressed the importance of reporting scams when they’re found to prevent the victimization of older people across the country. Cusson saida hotline staffed with professionals and social workers run by the Justice Department can be reached for resources Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 833-372-8311.
“Law enforcement uses reports from survivors to build cases,” she said. “We piece together information from reports throughout the country, and reporting may help another person from being victimized.”
State government agencies also assist older consumers targeted by fraud schemes.
Brown’s office worked with the General Assembly this legislative session to pass an expanded version of the Maryland residents’ bill of rights, which now includes the right to be free of financial exploitation for seniors.
Comptroller Brooke Lierman, a Democrat serving her first term, created the Office of Public Engagementto assist older adults and the Maryland Department of Aging to ensure that people are educated about the risk of financial fraud schemes, and worked with the legislature to create mobile tax clinics that can help seniors in rural areas navigate the filing system.
Lierman praised Democratic Gov. Wes Moore and the General Assembly for approving legislation this session that will establish a code of ethics for tax preparers to make it more difficult for them to take advantage of taxpayers.
Her office also has a team thatruns questionable or suspicious tax returns through additional processes to make sure no one is filing them fraudulently.
Brown recommends that older adults don’t pick up the phone for unknown callers, and that they hang up if they’re uncertain about who is on the other end of the line. He also urged them to be stingy about handing out their personal information, and to regularly review their financial statements and credit reports.
Brown said that falling for a financial scam can be embarrassing, but that it happens to many people “so there’s really no need to be embarrassed — though I know that’s easier said than done.”
“The best thing you can do is to seek out resources and ask for help,” he said. That can be done by calling the consumer protection division hotline at 410-528-8662.
“As your attorney general and as a son, this issue is near and dear to my heart,” Brown said. “My father was scammed, and my mother is 97. It’s our duty to protect and to care for our older Marylanders.”
