AARP Helps Virginians Fight Back Against Fraud

For 12 years, Trudy Marotta was a full-time caregiver to her husband, who had multiple sclerosis and was bedridden in his final years. The phone rang constantly, and she estimates three out of four calls were attempts by criminals to bait her into handing over money. Scammers pretended to be tech-support workers warning she had a computer virus or utility company employees claiming she hadn’t paid her electric bill.

“Nowadays, we have to walk around with our head on a swivel, literally playing like the game of Whac-A-Mole at the carnival,” says Marotta, 69, who lives in Fairfax County. “Every time you smack something down, something else comes back up.”

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Marotta, whose husband died in 2015, now volunteers as a fraud speaker for the AARP Fraud Watch Network — educating Virginians on how to avoid the latest scams. Throughout April, AARP Virginia will offer a series of online and in-person fraud prevention workshops to help fight a dramatic rise in scams targeting older residents.

Statewide, fraud losses among adults 60 and over in the commonwealth increased from nearly $25 million in 2020 to $94 million in 2023, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Officials note that actual numbers are likely far higher because cases of fraud frequently go unreported.

AARP Virginia is hosting fraud prevention events at bowling alleys, wineries and breweries to appeal to a wide audience, says Atesha Jones, associate state director of federal advocacy. The organization also has presenters like Marotta who go out into communities and other volunteers who hand out fraud prevention information at local events. Those efforts are reaching people, but it’s an uphill battle.

“Criminals are getting more savvy,” Jones says. “There’s always a new scam.”

Identity theft and impostor scams are among the most common forms of fraud in Virginia, she notes.

Helping veterans

One of AARP Virginia’s events in April will specifically focus on how veterans can protect themselves and their families.

Retired, active-duty service members and their families are more often targeted by scammers than their civilian counterparts and are 40 percent more likely to lose money when hit by similar schemes, according to AARP research. Current and former military members get targeted with disability-benefit scams. Criminals also try to charge for access to or to update discharge forms, when this service is free by law.

AARP has online resources to help veterans and military families at aarp.org/VetsFraudCenter.

Virginians can also request a general fraud talk for their community group by a trained AARP volunteer.