Fraud Fighters: AARP Foundation Call Center Serves At-risk Seniors

A new AARP Foundation program is taking fraud prevention to a new level, making calls to make a difference on behalf of endangered seniors nationwide.

Older adults, unfortunately, are the daily victims of financial frauds and scams.  In tough economic times such as these, that vulnerability only increases. 

The new, volunteer-based Colorado Consumer Fraud Prevention Call Center, which opened in Denver in April, is helping to fight a particularly pernicious brand of scams known as money transfer or wire transfer frauds. 

“These are scams designed to get you to wire money to someone you don’t know in advance of receiving a terrific prize or gift that, in fact, you will never receive,” says Bob Toye, call center manager.

“You get an email, a letter or a call announcing that you’ve won a lottery, for example, or qualify for a bargain price on an incredibly expensive item.  You may be offered a job, a low-rate credit card, even a loan.” 

The bottom line to these frauds is a requirement to wire money upfront to cover administrative expenses, taxes, or other program costs.  The advance fees range from small amounts to hundreds, thousands, even ten of thousands of dollars. 

The Denver call center employs a “reverse boiler room” approach in which volunteers make outbound calls to seniors across the country to increase their awareness of the types and dangers of these money transfer frauds. 

The volunteers’ message advises seniors to exercise a healthy skepticism around offers that are too good to be true, to never wire money to someone they don’t know, and to safeguard their personal information.

With a core of 30 volunteers, the center operates in tandem with the AARP Foundation’s ElderWatch program in Colorado and has already reached out to over 15,000 consumers. 

Be a fraud Fighter! – The Consumer Fraud Prevention Call Center, located in downtown Denver and open five days a week from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., us now recruiting additional volunteers.  If you live in the area and are interested in joining the team, please contact Bob Toye at 303-318-6765 or by email to rtoye@aarp.org.