[Senate Hearing 114-848]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 114-848

                         SENIOR SCAMS: WHAT ARE
                            THEY AND HOW CAN
                           PEOPLE AVOID THEM

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS


                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                       WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA

                               __________

                             MARCH 21, 2016

                               __________

                           Serial No. 114-22

         Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Aging

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                              __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
48-229 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

                   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine, Chairman

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah                 CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
MARK KIRK, Illinois                  BILL NELSON, Florida
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona                  ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania
TIM SCOTT, South Carolina            SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
BOB CORKER, Tennessee                KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York
DEAN HELLER, Nevada                  RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
TOM COTTON, Arkansas                 JOE DONNELLY, Indiana
DAVID PERDUE, Georgia                ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts
THOM TILLIS, North Carolina          TIM KAINE, Virginia
BEN SASSE, Nebraska
                              ----------                              
               Priscilla Hanley, Majority Staff Director
                 Derron Parks, Minority Staff Director
                        
                        
                        C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              

                                                                   Page

Opening Statement of Phyllis Mundy, Vice Chair of the Luzerne-
  Wyoming County Area Agency on Aging Advisory Board.............     1
Opening Statement of Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr., Member of the 
  Committee......................................................     2

                           PANEL OF WITNESSES

Teresa Osborne, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Aging......     5
Stefanie Salavantis, Luzerne County District Attorney............    15
Mary Roselle, Executive Director, Area Agency on Aging for 
  Luzerne and Wyoming Counties...................................    18
Sarah Derhammer, Victim of Identity Theft Scam...................    20

                                APPENDIX
                      Prepared Witness Statements

Teresa Osborne, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Aging......    29
Stefanie Salavantis, Luzerne County District Attorney............    33
Mary Roselle, Executive Director, Area Agency on Aging for 
  Luzerne and Wyoming Counties...................................    37
Sarah Derhammer, Victim of Identity Theft Scam...................    39

 
                         SENIOR SCAMS: WHAT ARE
                            THEY AND HOW CAN
                           PEOPLE AVOID THEM

                              ----------                              


                         MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016

                                       U.S. Senate,
                                Special Committee on Aging,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 a.m., at 
Council Chambers, 200 North River Street, Wilkes-Barre, 
Pennsylvania, Hon. Robert P. Casey, Jr., Member of the 
Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senator Casey.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF PHYLLIS MUNDAY,

            VICE CHAIR OF THE LUZERNE-WYOMING COUNTY

              AREA AGENCY ON AGING ADVISORY BOARD

    Ms. Munday. Good morning, everyone. I am Phyllis Munday, 
Vice Chair of the Luzerne-Wyoming County Area Agency on Aging 
Advisory Board. On behalf of the Agency and its Advisory Board, 
I welcome you to today's hearing. William Runner, Chair of the 
Advisory Board, is here with us today, as well.
    Special welcome and thank you to Secretary of Pennsylvania 
Department of Aging Teresa Osborne and to Luzerne County 
District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, our own Agency Director 
Mary Roselle, and Mrs. Sarah Derhammer, all of whom will offer 
remarks today.
    We also recognize Cassandra Coleman from the Governor's 
Regional Office; Cindy Vough from State Senator John Yudichak's 
Office; David Pedri, Luzerne County Manager; Tim McGinley and 
Eileen Sorokas from Luzerne County Council. Is there anyone 
that I have forgotten or did not see come in?
    We were delighted when Senator Casey approached us about 
holding a hearing on the topic, ``Senior Scams: What Are They 
and How Can People Avoid Them.'' As an agency dedicated to the 
welfare of older adults, we are well aware that criminals 
constantly target our seniors with scams designed to part them 
from their hard-earned life savings.
    The Area Agency on Aging has an Older Adult Protective 
Services Unit that deals with this type of fraud. 
Unfortunately, the staff almost always becomes aware of a scam 
perpetrated against an older adult after it is too late to 
recover the funds, and all too often after the senior citizen 
is left impoverished.
    I am sure you will hear today how difficult it is to arrest 
and prosecute these criminals, and that is why we are 
especially delighted to welcome today's hearing in an effort to 
raise awareness, to educate, and to prevent our aging 
population from becoming victims of these scams in the first 
place, and now, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our 
friend and neighbor to the north, Senator Casey. Senator Robert 
P. Casey, Jr., is Pennsylvania's senior Senator. He works every 
day on behalf of Pennsylvania families, fighting to create 
jobs, advocating for children and seniors, and pursuing a 
national security strategy that protects our interests and 
supports those who serve our country. He serves on five 
committees, including the Senate Special
    Committee on Aging, Senate Finance Committee, Senate HELP 
Committee. Senator Casey and his wife Terese have four 
daughters and live in Scranton.
    Please join me in welcoming Senator Bob Casey.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR 
         ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE

    Senator Casey. The hearing will come to order.
    Phyllis, I want to thank you for that introduction and I 
wanted to--I had to use the gavel because this is a formal 
hearing, as you know from your distinguished career in the 
General Assembly. You know how important it is to be formal 
when you must be, but we are grateful that you got us started 
and I am also grateful for your presence here, not only for the 
experience and expertise you bring to issues like this, but 
also for your continuing work to protect seniors. It is a nice 
reunion, and I do not get to have formal hearings on a regular 
basis, so it is nice to have one at home. Thank you, Phyllis.
    Ms. Munday. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Casey. Give her a hand.
    I want to thank everyone for being here today to confront a 
very difficult challenge for seniors and for our families, but 
also for the country, and that is the grave challenge we have 
in confronting scams against seniors.
    We know that on a regular basis, literally, on a daily or 
hourly basis, seniors across the country are targeted by 
scammers, con artists, frauds, whatever terminology you want to 
use, and it is an outrage, no matter whose family, no matter 
what the circumstances, that individuals would prey upon 
seniors--or anyone else--especially when folks are in 
vulnerable circumstances, and they are becoming more and more 
sophisticated, both here in Pennsylvania and around the 
country.
    We know that in Pennsylvania, we are proud to say that we 
have a State that, as part of our overall population, we have 
almost two million seniors, and we are proud of that, and we 
know that we learn so much from them and we have such respect 
for them. It also creates a bigger challenge for us on this 
issue. We know that a State like ours is at the center of this 
growing problem that we see all across the country.
    The scams that we are talking about are more than some kind 
of temporary inconvenience. Instead, they can be a horror for 
seniors and for their families, and when we step back and 
consider who these individuals are who become victims of these 
kinds of schemes and scams, we know who they are. They are our 
mothers and fathers, they are members of our family, they are 
people across our State who fought our wars, who worked in our 
factories, who taught our children, who built this country, and 
who, of course, gave us life, literally, and love, and we owe 
them a debt of gratitude that can be repaid in a lot of ways, 
but one of the best ways to make sure that we are repaying that 
debt is to do everything we can to protect them from these 
kinds of crimes.
    We know that in Pennsylvania and across the U.S., there are 
more and more reports of criminals scamming seniors, defrauding 
our parents or grandparents, and we know that this does not 
involve millions or tens of millions of dollars. It literally 
involves billions and billions of dollars.
    We know that the Pennsylvania Area Agency on Aging receives 
thousands of reports each year of this kind of victimization. 
Over 18,000 calls were received in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, 
and those calling were requesting protective service, resulting 
in nearly 5,000 substantiated cases, so 18,000 cases and 5,000 
cases substantiated across our State just in that 1 year.
    The monetary loss to elder fraud and abuse is roughly $2.9 
billion each year, and it is growing. This is from our seniors 
who are more likely to live on a fixed income with little money 
to spare.
    These scams come in many forms and varieties and can be 
performed through the telephone, by way of the Internet, or, in 
fact, even in person. Scammers may pretend to be 
representatives of the U.S. Government or foreign governments. 
They may pretend to be a trusted company, a corporation, or it 
may be someone looking for or pretending that they are someone 
looking for companionship or even a loved one of that senior, 
pretending to be someone they are not.
    As a member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, 
I have explored several types of these scams and have asked 
questions of representatives from law enforcement and from 
victims themselves to find the best ways to protect our seniors 
and to demand justice for those who scam them.
    The Aging Committee established a hotline for any 
individual to call if they believe that they or a loved one is 
involved in a scam, and we will repeat this number, but the 
number for the Aging Committee, the U.S. Senate Aging 
Committee, to report these kinds of scams is 1-855-303-9470, 
855-303-9470. Over the course of 2015, the committee received 
over a thousand calls from across the country, so a brand new 
1-855 number set up and you are getting as many as a thousand 
calls in just the first year.
    The committee published a report detailing the top ten 
types of scams committed and ways for seniors to protect 
themselves. This is the report that I am referring to. We have 
copies out there, but you can see, and those of you who have 
done a lot of work in this area will recognize not just what 
the data shows, but will recognize some of the patterns that 
have been identified that comprise those type ten types of 
scams.
    Most prevalent were IRS scams, Internal Revenue Service 
scams, where scammers pretend to be IRS agents, claiming that 
their elderly victims owe significant back taxes or fees. After 
demanding and, in some cases, receiving payment, often over the 
course of several phone calls, the relentless scammers have 
been known to continue calling the senior claiming to have 
found further tax discrepancies. These criminals prey on 
seniors who tend to be more trusting, more likely to live 
alone, and sometimes inexperienced in the technology used by 
the scammers.
    On the Aging Committee report are also another category, 
sweepstakes scammers. A popular version of this scam is the 
Jamaican lottery scam, which results in roughly $300 million 
having been sent to scammers on the island nation each year 
from nearly 300,000 American seniors.
    My office has heard from one individual in Northeastern 
Pennsylvania whose elderly sister has been a victim of 
sweepstakes scams multiple times. The first was a scammer who 
claimed that she won money from a Publishers' Clearinghouse 
Sweepstakes, but she first needed to pay $10,000 in taxes and 
fees. That is what the scam artist told her. After identifying 
this as a scam before paying, the same woman was later scammed 
by a Jamaican lottery scammer to whom she did, in fact, send 
money. After paying these bills, this senior received multiple 
calls and mailings each day asking for additional money.
    We must do more to protect our seniors. That is an 
understatement. We have got to do a lot more to protect them 
from fraud and help those who commit these crimes to be held 
fully accountable, to feel the full measure of justice, and 
there are lots of ways to do that, whether it is civil fines, 
and I will talk about a piece of Federal legislation to do 
that, or there is jail time. We should do everything we can to 
hunt these people down and send them to jail, so that is why I 
am introducing legislation at the Federal level, the Senior 
Investor Protection Enhancement Act, which would ensure that we 
adequately punish those who commit these crimes against 
seniors. Now, this is on the civil fine side of this. I still 
want to send them to jail, too, but that is often for other 
levels of government.
    This bill at the Federal level would fine individuals an 
additional $50,000 on top of any criminal penalties for any 
securities violations committed against or directed toward 
seniors, so in addition to criminal accountability and criminal 
penalties, this would be on top of that, a civil penalty with 
an additional $50,000 above what it is now.
    The examples before us today and the testimony that we will 
hear today are the stories and experiences of those who have 
been able to come forward, but these are not all the stories, 
obviously, of what has happened to individuals. We know that so 
many seniors suffer from these scams in silence. They do not 
bring it forward. They do not want to report.
    We know that older Americans are less likely to report 
fraud and abuse, and that is understandable. They may not 
realize they have been scammed. They may be ashamed of what has 
happened, especially if they have lived a successful life and 
have been very successful in their profession. They often may 
feel embarrassed to report, and that is understandable. I 
would, too.
    They do not know how to report the incident is another 
problem, and I hope today will be one of those days when we can 
remind folks about ways you can report.
    We also know that in Pennsylvania, there is a statewide 
Elder Abuse Hotline, an 800 number, 1-800-490-8505, 1-800-490-
8505. This number will direct an individual to their local Area 
Agency on Aging. The hotline is operational 24 hours a day, 7 
days a week.
    Internet crime complaints can also be reported to the FBI 
in the National White Collar Crime Center at www.IC3.gov, and 
that is capital I, capital C, No. 3-dot-gov.
    I look forward to discussing how we can both protect our 
seniors to recognize the signs of a scam and how to find and 
prosecute to the full extent of the law individuals responsible 
for perpetrating these crimes.
    I am honored today not just to be with you and to learn 
from you, and to learn from both our witnesses as well as from 
folks in the audience, but I am especially grateful to welcome 
in our first panel, it is a single person on a single panel, 
but she has a major responsibility in Pennsylvania, and that is 
Secretary of Aging, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of 
Aging, I should say, Teresa Osborne, someone I have known for a 
long time, long before she became Madam Secretary, if we are 
allowed to call you that.
    Teresa was confirmed as Secretary of the Pennsylvania 
Department of Aging by a unanimous vote of the Senate, the 
Pennsylvania Senate, on May 13, 2015. I have never received a 
unanimous vote on anything.
    I am grateful to be in the presence of someone who has.
    Secretary Osborne most recently served as the Executive 
Director of the Luzerne and Wyoming Counties Area Agency on 
Aging. She previously served as Chancellor and Chief Operating 
Officer of the Diocese of Scranton, and prior to that was 
Executive Director of the Lackawanna County Department of Human 
Services and Executive Director of the Lackawanna County Area 
Agency on Aging. That is when I met her and got to know her and 
her work in Lackawanna County.
    A native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Secretary Osborne has 
over two decades of experience working with and advocating for 
older Pennsylvanians and other vulnerable populations. She 
earned her Bachelor of Social Work degree and Master's of 
Health Service Administration from Marywood University, the 
alma mater of my mother and my daughter and two sisters and my 
brother-in-law, and I will not continue, but it is a long list. 
They would want me to mention that, and I just did and I hope 
everyone heard it.
    I am grateful to have the Secretary of Aging here. 
Secretary, if you would provide some testimony and then--your 
time is unlimited, but maybe the room will knock on the door 
and tell us when to leave, but I wanted to ask you some 
questions, but we are really honored to have you here and 
grateful for your continuing work to protect our seniors.

            STATEMENT OF TERESA OSBORNE, SECRETARY,

                PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF AGING

    Ms. Osborne. I appreciate that, Senator, more than you 
know. Good morning. Senator, thank you for your kind words of 
introduction and for giving Marywood University a shout out. My 
family, too, will be proud of that.
    To my fellow testifiers and guests, thank you for pausing 
out of your Monday morning in order to join us here today for 
this important hearing hosted by Senator Casey.
    My name, as mentioned, is Teresa Osborne. I currently have 
the privilege of serving as the Secretary of Aging for the 
Pennsylvania Department of Aging, and while it is indeed a 
privilege for me to serve in this capacity and for me to 
provide testimony for the purposes of this public hearing, I 
would really rather that the need for a session like this 
simply did not exist, but the need is real and the suffering of 
far too many seniors is palpable.
    Every year, older Americans lose, as was just mentioned, 
nearly $2.9 billion to scammers and con artists, indeed, 
criminals who take advantage of an older adult's 
vulnerabilities. As was described in the report that Senator 
Casey just referenced to, ``Fighting Fraud, U.S. Senate Aging 
Committee,'' that identified top ten, almost a David Letterman-
like top ten scams targeting our Nation's seniors, fraud 
involves the deliberate deceit--I repeat again, the deliberate 
deceit--of the victim with the promise of goods, services, or 
other benefits that are nonexistent, unnecessary, never 
intended to be provided, or grossly misrepresented.
    Generally, financial crimes against the elderly fall under 
two categories, fraud committed by strangers and financial 
exploitation by relatives, friends, or other caregivers. While 
these two categories at times are often interchangeable, the 
difference really does lie in the offender-victim relationship, 
which calls for us to engage in different methods to respond to 
the problem.
    As was conveyed via the report that Senator Casey and his 
fellow committee members put together, older Pennsylvanians, 
regretfully, are counted among those older Americans who have 
fallen victim to prize and sweepstake fraud, identity theft, 
financial exploitation, and other types of scams.
    Having begun my career, as the Senator just alluded to, as 
an aging care manager 26 years ago at the Lackawanna County 
Area Agency on Aging, placed immediately into the Older Adult 
Protective Service Unit. Since that time all those years ago, I 
have witnessed firsthand the devastating toll that being the 
victim of a financial crime takes on an older adult.
    Under the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Older Adult 
Protective Services Act, individuals age 60 years and older who 
lack the capacity to protect themselves, who are eminent risk 
of abuse, including financial fraud, are able under that Act to 
receive services necessary to protect their health, welfare, 
and safety. The Older Adult Protective Services Act ensures 
that steps are taken by the local Area Agency on Aging to 
detect, reduce, or eliminate the abuse while safeguarding--
always safeguarding--the older adult's rights.
    Currently, I have the privilege of serving in a position of 
trust whereby, in addition to my home County of Lackawanna and 
County of Luzerne-Wyoming, where I had the grateful privilege 
of working in for a little bit of time before I was called to 
Harrisburg, but for those who I know and work most closely with 
at the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, we are responsible to 
ensure that all our Commonwealth's Older Adult Protective 
Services Act is, indeed, protecting vulnerable Pennsylvanians 
in all 67 of our Commonwealth's counties, 67 counties covered 
by our local 52 Area Agencies on Aging.
    In this privileged post, regretfully, every day, I hear or 
am informed of an older adult somewhere in the 67 counties of 
our Commonwealth who has been financially exploited. The 
situations that I am informed of range from an elderly woman's 
pension check being cashed without her permission to an elderly 
man's signature being forged on a check and is then used not 
for his benefit, from the misuse of an older adult's 
possessions, such as an ATM or a credit card, to an older adult 
being coerced into signing over a piece of property, or the 
improper use of assets by a Power of Attorney or a court-
appointed guardian.
    These situations also include seniors falling victim to 
sweepstakes scams, whereby the older adult is told that he or 
she could win, or has already won, a valuable prize or a lot of 
money. In order to receive their prize, however, the older 
adult must first send in money in order to cover taxes, 
shipping, or other fees. The older adult obliges and then the 
prize is never delivered, or in other instances, a senior falls 
prey to scammers who solicit donations to nonexistent 
charities, indeed, playing on the older adult's simple desire 
to help others, or older Pennsylvanians who fall victim to home 
repair scams whereby a con artist recommends an array of 
fraudulent emergency home repairs, often requiring an advance 
deposit. The con artist may then fail to do any work, may start 
the work and never finish, or will do substandard work that 
requires correction. These most common frauds of home repairs 
include roof repairs, driveway resurfacing, or waterproofing 
and pest control.
    As distressing as each situation is, it is even more 
sobering knowing that researchers tell us that only a small 
percent of financial fraud cases perpetrated against a senior 
are ever reported. It is estimated that for each case that is 
reported, between 14 and 24 cases go undetected.
    Older adults are less likely to report financial fraud for 
several main reasons: They do not realize they have been or are 
being scammed; they do not know who to report it to; they are 
too ashamed or embarrassed; they worry that their relatives or 
friends will think that they no longer have the mental capacity 
to take care of their own financial affairs; or they fear 
retaliation.
    The fastest growing segment of America's population are 
individuals who are 85 years of age and older. To give you an 
idea of the steepness of this increase, in 2010, there were 5.8 
million Americans age 85 and older. By 2050, it is projected 
that there will be 19 million people in this age group. 
Pennsylvania's profile is no different.
    Financial exploitation is one of the most frequent forms of 
older abuse, and it is only going to get worse. As such, it is 
important that we focus on three key areas: Prevention, 
protection, and response. To this end, it is also incredibly 
critical that our response strategies be tailored to one's 
local circumstances and includes the engagement of a variety of 
partners. Law enforcement responses alone are not effective in 
reducing or solving the problem. Careful consideration must be 
given to who else in your particular community shares 
responsibility and who can help law enforcement better respond 
to instances of elder fraud and financial exploitation.
    We know from experience that these cases are complex and 
require expertise in multiple areas, including the expertise 
found at the local Area Agency on Aging. It also requires the 
expertise of local district attorneys, police departments, 
financial institutions, and other community groups who are 
dedicated to serving older adults.
    Building coalitions and engaging in community outreach 
efforts have led to the creation of Elder Abuse Task Forces 
throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Successful task 
forces such as the task force that functions right here in 
Luzerne County are built on the premise that to effectively 
protect older adults, the aging services network and law 
enforcement must work cooperatively in identifying and 
responding to elder victimizations.
    The Pennsylvania Department of Aging, in partnership with 
Temple University's Institute on Protective Services, provides 
support to counties desiring to develop an Elder Abuse Task 
Force. Our hope for each task force is that through this 
collaborative effort, community professionals come together to 
break down walls that otherwise prevent effective responses to 
the victimization of older adults. The public is also educated 
to recognize and report elder abuse, and advocacy becomes the 
cornerstone by which justice is pursued and cases of elder 
fraud and financial abuse are successfully prosecuted.
    Our intention in providing this support is embedded. It is 
embedded in Governor Wolf's commitment to protect our most 
vulnerable residents from all types of abuse and neglect and to 
bring elder justice to the communities of our Commonwealth. 
Older Pennsylvanians have sacrificed and worked hard to raise 
their families, build their communities, and defend our country 
in times of crisis. They deserve to have access to an elder 
justice system that is prepared and committed to help them cope 
with the harm that has been done, and to have the support 
necessary to seek restitution, healing, and recovery.
    The World Health Organization recently said this about 
elder abuse. Elder abuse is a violation of human rights and is 
a significant cause of illness, injury, loss of productivity, 
and despair.
    As a government, as a society, as a community, and as 
individuals, each of us must play our part. We must strive to 
increase our efforts to ensure that all older Pennsylvanians 
have the opportunity to age in place with the dignity, respect, 
and honor that they deserve.
    I thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony 
on this very important issue, Mr. Senator, and look forward to 
being able to respond to any questions that you may have of me.
    Senator Casey. Thank you, Secretary Osborne. I appreciate 
your testimony and the experience that undergirds it, your own 
experience as an advocate for all these years.
    I guess I will start with that experience. Can you outline 
for us, and I know we do not have unlimited time to do a full 
history of all your experience, but can you outline for us how 
this problem has grown and developed since the time you were 
starting out in your work in Lackawanna County and then 
eventually Luzerne County.
    Ms. Osborne. Sure. For each case that I have seen as a 
protective service investigator, first and foremost, it is 
amazing at how much critically complex the cases have become 
and that individuals, regardless of the complexity of the case, 
are often left to despair in terms of embarrassment, in terms 
of their quality of life, and in terms of their desire to 
continue to engage with their community, so, for the cases, 
however, that folks have become even more dubious in the way 
that they approach an older adult. For example, many of the 
cases that I had the privilege and opportunity to engage in 
with older adults, you know, you had to listen in terms of what 
folks were telling you, listen for those little details, as we 
do with our own elderly parents or neighbors or friends or 
others that we engage with. Sometimes it is just the little 
thing that is said in terms of, ``I am lonely,'' ``I am a 
recent widow or widowers, but, you know, this person is calling 
me every day and engaging in conversation with me.''
    Those devious attempts in order to befriend somebody will 
always, always stop me and pause me and leave me in amazement 
in terms of just the great lengths that someone goes to in 
order to steal someone else's money and take advantage of their 
life and leave them decimated behind them.
    Many of the perpetrators of these abuses are never caught 
because they are on phones far overseas with regard to reaching 
out to vulnerable older adults, let alone older vulnerable 
Pennsylvanians, but, millions of older adults across our 
country who fall victim to scam and prey.
    It is amazing to me that the problem just continues to 
worsen, clearly because of numbers. You know, we are privileged 
within our Commonwealth of 12.7 million individuals and 2.9 
million of them age 60 and over call Pennsylvania home, and 
while the needs of older Pennsylvanians vary as folks age in 
place with dignity and respect, the fastest growing age cohort 
in Pennsylvania are those 85-plus. Often, it is a single female 
living in their home and easily can fall victim to prey, and 
often, even though they may realize what is going on, are 
afraid to tell anybody, so, we constantly--it has not changed 
in the 26 years that I have engaged in this work, to encourage 
folks to come forward, whether they call their local Area 
Agency on Aging or they call law enforcement, tell someone they 
trust so that they can help them get help and can protect their 
assets and their dignity as they desire to live in their 
communities.
    Senator Casey. I guess part of the challenge here---there 
are a couple, I guess, if we had to outline them. One is the 
numbers you mentioned, the number of seniors growing, 
especially the 85 and up. I was looking at the numbers in your 
testimony. It looks like in a little more than 30 years, the 
number of seniors nationally over 85 and older will triple, 
from almost six million to 19 million--actually, more than 
triple, so that is one challenge, that there are just more 
potential victims.
    Number two, I guess, is technology. The telephone itself, 
kind of an old fashioned telephone, is still being used, but 
now with cell phones, people can make these calls from almost 
anywhere, and I guess, at the same time, can be traced to a 
phone, but then if they are not using the same phone, I am sure 
the scam artist figures out ways to not be traced by way of the 
cell phone.
    Then the Internet is something relatively new, probably 
since when you started in this work, there was not that 
pathway, so just like everything else, these tools that help us 
make our lives simpler and are great conveniences and tools to 
gain knowledge can also be used to victimize.
    Do you think, with both the growth of the numbers and the 
growth of the technology, do you think we have missed some 
opportunities to keep ahead of it, and if you have any ideas, 
not only for what we could do at the Federal level, but even 
more ideas for us to either legislate, collaborate, do other 
things to reduce the problem.
    Ms. Osborne. You hit it, Senator, on a word that I like to 
use frequently, and that is collaborate, followed up by 
communicate.
    Senator Casey. Right.
    Ms. Osborne. If we collaborate and communicate, and then I 
will add a third one, educate. The more that we educate, not 
just seniors but anyone who is engaging in technology. You 
know, more opportunities now, as you mentioned, with iPhones, 
with computer technology, with social media. There are more 
opportunities to collaborate and communicate. However, if we 
are not trained and trusted and educated on how to use those 
appropriately for good as opposed to for deviant acts, such as 
victimization of an older adult or another vulnerable 
Pennsylvanian, such as individuals under the age of 60 with 
physical disabilities who we see more and more of also falling 
victim to financial exploitation and financial fraud.
    The more we can educate folks across the lifespan in terms 
of how to utilize technology for the good as opposed to for the 
bad, the better served we will be, so I think there are always 
opportunities for us to collaborate.
    One thing that we strive to do in State government is to 
collaborate at the State level, and we cannot talk about it 
externally to folks such as those who gather with us today in 
the community if we are not doing it at the State level, so 
what do I mean by that? My opportunity to work with the 
Secretaries of Health, the Secretaries of Human Services, the 
Secretary of Banking and Finance, the Secretary of Education, 
in terms of how we are collaborating together to utilize the 
resources before us in terms of educating older Pennsylvanians 
about the tools that are before them in order to understand 
health insurance, for example, how to navigate it. The 
Department of Aging does a tremendous job helping with that, so 
does the Department of Insurance.
    We have opportunities to collaborate at the statewide level 
to utilize our resources that are limited, just as they are 
everywhere else, but to utilize them well and wisely in order 
to educate older Pennsylvanians about what the tools are, what 
the technology are, and as we sit here on March 21 and the tax 
deadline looming before us, IRS tax scams are the ones that we 
talk about most these days in terms of an individual from the 
Federal Reserve, and that an IRS agent is never going to call 
you on the phone and demand a payment for money. They are not 
going to reach out to you electronically via e-mail and say, 
send in money.
    How do we educate older Pennsylvanians at this tax season 
time, when many older Pennsylvanians, regretfully, do not have 
a lot of income coming in and are not required to pay taxes--I 
am sorry, to file a tax return, but how do we educate them to 
say, hey, the person calling on the other line does not have 
your best interest. Just hang up the phone. If anybody asks you 
to provide their Social Security number or credit card number 
or bank card number over the phone and it is not a call that 
you solicited their assistance, hang up and then tell somebody 
about it.
    There is plenty of opportunity that we can take advantage 
of to do a better job at educating, and then when we do believe 
that something has happened to an older adult, the 
responsibility under the Older Adult Protective Services Act is 
to take steps to reduce or eliminate that abuse. We then have 
an opportunity and an obligation to refer that to law 
enforcement, where with the piece of legislation that you 
recommend and others who will testify after me with regard to 
how law enforcement responds to these cases, that we can seek 
elder justice while we are also protecting the individual 
rights of an older adult who might have been victimized.
    Senator Casey. In terms--you mentioned the word education, 
which is such a big part of this battle. Like any consumers, we 
all have to be on guard, and maybe more so seniors, because 
they are most likely the most targeted audience. Can you tell 
us, and I know some of this is by way of reiteration, but tell 
us a little more about what your Department does to educate now 
and how folks in, whether it is Luzerne County or anywhere in 
Northeastern Pennsylvania, can take advantage of the 
educational opportunities, the information that you provide.
    Ms. Osborne. Sure. At the local level and here in Luzerne 
County, as well as in Wyoming, as well as Lackawanna, and 
throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, our educational 
opportunities are limitless. We attempt to go into senior 
centers, to high-rises, to adult day centers, to anywhere where 
seniors live and work and pray and play, in order to ensure 
that we are giving them good information with regard to, did 
this happen to you? Do not be afraid or embarrassed, but come 
forward and let us know how we could possibly help you.
    We also do, as I just mentioned, a lot of partnerships, in 
particular with educational opportunities with the Attorney 
General's office, as well as the Bureau of Consumer Protection, 
as well as the Department of Insurance, as well as the 
Department of Banking and Securities, with regard to how we 
collaborate our message to get into the communities where 
seniors, again, are gathered so that we can educate them on 
what are the most current scams that are out there.
    I am always amazed at a new scam, you know, and every time 
I hear folks from the Attorney General's office talk about 
elder victimization and what scams folks are perpetrating upon 
them, I am always amazed, so when we talk about education of 
our seniors, it is also education of those who are going into 
the homes or going into the areas where seniors congregate in 
order to educate them. How are we educating our staffs, not 
just at the State level, but then at the local level, 67 
counties and our 52 Area Agencies on Aging.
    It is critically important that we have educational 
opportunities available to them so that they know what is going 
on in the world that is ever changing around us, which is 
another reason why we like to partner with Temple University 
and its Institute on Protective Services so that we can ensure 
that from the educational standpoint of a university such as 
Temple that is committed to working with the Commonwealth and 
has been for many, many years, back to when your Dad was 
Governor and the Older Adult Protective Services Act first came 
into play, in order to ensure that we are getting information 
out there as quickly as possible and taking advantage of every 
means.
    Long gone are the days of being able to come together for a 
week-long training at a hotel conference room, you know. We 
need to take advantage of the good use of technology via social 
media and online training in order to educate our staffs on a 
constant basis so they can, in turn, go into the homes of older 
Pennsylvanians and ensure that they are protected.
    Senator Casey. If you had the--I know this is difficult to 
summarize quickly, but if you had to give advice to any one of 
us, not just seniors, but any one of us about what are the 
first two or three steps you should take if you get a phone 
call or some communication that you have some suspicion of, 
about, and I guess part of this is, unfortunately, being more 
suspicious and less trustful, but kind of walk us through the 
first things you should do if you get some kind of 
communication that you think might be a scam.
    Ms. Osborne. Well, my Mom is 82. She will kill me now for 
saying that. However, my Mom is also an older Pennsylvanian 
who, you know, lives basically alone for the days that I am in 
Harrisburg and my brothers and others are coming in and out of 
her life on a regular basis, but I will share with you the same 
advice that I give to her.
    For all of the calls that come into a household, if it is 
not a member of your family and it is somebody engaging you in 
conversation and attempts to befriend you or ask you questions 
that are personal to you and you did not solicit the 
conversation, hang up. You know, in terms of not engaging in 
conversation is critical, and then let one of your kids know. 
Do not be afraid. Do not be embarrassed. Tell somebody that you 
trust. Tell one of your children, or tell your neighbor, tell--
oftentimes in our communities, there are faith-based 
institutions, a priest, a rabbi, a minister that you would 
trust in order to reach out to him or her in order to help be 
educated with regard to, you know, this is not--you did not 
solicit this information. Nobody should call you on the phone 
and just all of a sudden be asking you for personal 
information, so that would be the best advice that I could give 
to family members and caregivers like myself who have elderly 
parents living at home who want to remain independent and need 
to be empowered to remain independent, but oftentimes these 
scammers and con artists are pretty crafty in terms of just 
continuing to engage in conversation, calling consistently at 
consistent times when they think that you might be lonely or 
more vulnerable, so that my first bit of advice would always be 
just to hang up.
    If, however, you feel that you went a little bit too far, 
you know, with answering questions, or gave out information 
like a Social Security number or a bank account information, 
you cannot be afraid to tell somebody that that happened, 
because the quicker that we can refer it to law enforcement, 
the quicker that somebody can get on it in terms of stopping 
that, the quicker we can get to a bank to say, hey, stop any 
payments on any credit cards or withdrawals from any accounts, 
so that would be the fast and dirty types of education that I 
take to myself as well as to my own family members and friends 
with regard to how to protect older Pennsylvanians at the very 
grassroots level of where calls are coming in individuals' 
homes.
    Senator Casey. Well, I appreciate that. In your testimony, 
at the end, when you quoted the World Health Organization, that 
elder abuse is, quote, ``a violation of human rights and a 
significant cause of illness, injury, loss of productivity, and 
despair,'' that is, unfortunately, the result of it, and all 
the more reason why we are grateful for your work and for your 
leadership and for your continuing labor in this vineyard, if I 
can use an old expression from the Bible, because we need more 
public officials and leaders in government who are focused on 
this problem, so in addition to the other duties and 
responsibilities as Secretary, we appreciate you focusing on 
this challenge.
    Secretary Osborne, thank you very much for your testimony.
    Ms. Osborne. Thanks, Senator. I appreciate it.
    Senator Casey. As we transition to our second panel, if we 
can have our second panel move to the table, I will just 
highlight something that the Secretary referred to, this card, 
this Tax Scam Protection Checklist from the IRS. I would urge 
anyone here to take--we have copies of these, right? Yes, there 
are copies outside--to take a copy of this, because a lot of 
people may not know this. I did not know this until recently, 
about a list of things the IRS would never do, and sometimes, 
it is easily--when we hear IRS, sometimes that gets people's 
attention. They might take action that they would not 
otherwise, so this is a list of six things the IRS will never 
do, and I hope we can highlight that.
    Second, I mentioned the report, but I did not read the 
title. The U.S. Senate Committee on Aging report, ``Fighting 
Fraud: U.S. Senate Aging Committee Identifies Top Ten Scams 
Targeting Our Nation's Seniors.'' That is the report I referred 
to, and you can take a copy of that, as well.
    I want to thank our second panel. What I will do is 
introduce each member of the panel first and then we will have 
their testimony and then I will take questions for--or, I will 
ask questions of all three as a group, as a unit, so I will 
first introduce each--introduce all the witnesses at one time 
and then we will start with the testimony.
    I want to thank the District Attorney for being here, for 
her presence and for her work on this issue. District Attorney 
Stefanie Salavantis took office in 2012, am I correct about 
that?
    Ms. Salavantis. Yes.
    Senator Casey. In 2012, and not long after she became 
District Attorney, she restructured the office by forming seven 
prosecuting investigating units. She formed, as well, an 
advanced tactical anti-crime unit made up of State, local, and 
Federal agencies to conduct--or to counter, I should say, to 
counter the increase in violent crime in our area. This unit 
includes the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement 
Agency, the Liquor Control Board, the State Police, Luzerne 
County detectives, Luzerne County sheriffs, as well as--
sheriffs and deputy sheriffs--as well as multiple law 
enforcement agencies from many municipalities.
    She also worked to change the Luzerne County Child Advocacy 
Center, making the decision to operate the center as a 
nonprofit. The focus of the center, of course, is on helping 
children who have been physically and sexually assaulted or 
neglected.
    Finally, in 2012, Luzerne County was faced with five teen 
suicides. In an effort to reduce teen suicide, the District 
Attorney introduced John Halligan, a nationally recognized 
bullying and suicide prevention speaker, to students at every 
public high school and even some middle schools in Luzerne 
County, and she is a, I should mention for the record, she is a 
graduate of Temple University. It came up in the Secretary's 
testimony.
    District Attorney, thank you for being here and we 
appreciate your work on this.
    Ms. Salavantis. Well, thank you for having me.
    Senator Casey. I will go to you first for testimony, but 
let me introduce our next two panel members.
    Mary Roselle--Mary is the Executive Director of the Area 
Agency on Aging for Luzerne and Wyoming Counties and has a B.S. 
in Accounting--my wife would want me to mention B.S. in 
Accounting--from Wilkes University and an M.B.A. in Finance 
also from Wilkes. She has been with the Area Agency on Aging 
for 15 years. For the majority of her time, she was Director of 
Administrative Services, which meant she was responsible for 
fiscal management, contract procurement, policy setting, and 
aspects of human resources. That is a hard job, and now you 
have got a promotion, right? Thank you for being here.
    I should say, prior to that, she worked for G.E. Capital 
and Commonwealth Telephone, many years of experience in both 
finance and management. She also teaches at College 
Misericordia, teaching in accounting and financing courses, 
which some in Washington should probably take, but we are 
grateful.
    Finally, Sarah Derhammer from Kingston Township. Sarah was 
born and raised and still lives in Kingston. Sarah and her late 
husband, Melvin, were married for 43 years before he passed 
away 5 years ago, and we are grateful in light of the difficult 
years you have had that you are willing to testify here today.
    Sarah and Melvin had five children. She worked 15 years at 
Kentucky Fried Chicken, 12 years at Long John Silver's. That is 
a lot of years on your feet----
    Mrs. Derhammer. Yes.
    Senator Casey [continuing]. carrying heavy trays, I am 
sure, and serving people. She also worked for a trucking 
delivery backstop--I should say, blacktop, delivering blacktop 
company for over 23 years, and I am sorry, that was your 
husband.
    Mrs. Derhammer. That was my husband.
    Senator Casey. Your husband worked there for 23 years.
    Mrs. Derhammer. I was going to say----
    Senator Casey. You would not be able to get all those years 
in one lifetime, right? He did some pretty tough work. That 
is----
    Mrs. Derhammer. Yes. He drove a truck.
    Senator Casey. That is a challenge for anyone to do that 
kind of work. You have also been a volunteer at Kingston Active 
Adult Senior Center, and that is another reason to commend and 
salute you today.
    Why don't we start with the District Attorney and then we 
will go from my left to right, and then we will take some 
questions.

               STATEMENT OF STEFANIE SALAVANTIS, 
                LUZERNE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY

    Ms. Salavantis. Well, thank you, and thank you for giving 
me this opportunity to speak about this very important topic.
    I know we touched a little bit upon some of the stats with 
regard to the seniors within our State and our community, but I 
do want to touch upon that just a little bit more. In 
Pennsylvania, based on the 2014 U.S. Census, Pennsylvania was 
the fourth highest--had the fourth highest percentage 
nationally for senior citizens. We were behind Maine, Florida, 
and West Virginia.
    Our population in Luzerne County is sort of similar, but 
with Luzerne County, we have a higher percentage compared to 
our State percentage. We have a 19 percent--approximately 19 
percent of our population are considered senior citizens. That 
increased by over 1 percent in just a few years. I touch upon 
that because I think it is very important for people to know 
that Luzerne County does have one of the highest percentage of 
senior citizens, and that is why this topic is very important 
to our community.
    Within the District Attorney's office, we oversee all of 
the criminal cases that occur within our borders. We have 48 
local and county law enforcement agencies, not including State 
and Federal agencies, that we work side-by-side with in order 
to prosecute these criminals committing crimes within our 
neighborhoods, and within the District Attorney's office, I 
have nine detectives assigned to specifically help law 
enforcement throughout the entire county on more of the 
egregious crimes being committed against our population. Some 
of these crimes include Internet crimes against children, 
domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, sexual assaults, 
white collar crimes, and homicides, and of those nine 
detectives that we have, one detective is specifically assigned 
to elder abuse because we are seeing so much going on here in 
Luzerne County, and elder abuse, as we discussed here today, 
elder abuse includes physical abuse. It includes financial 
exploitation. It includes scams, frauds. These are very 
important topics that we discuss on a regular basis 
specifically with the Elder Abuse Task Force and making sure 
that we work in a group effort, being more collaborative, and 
making sure that we are educating the community on what we are 
seeing from the law enforcement's perspective.
    With regard to scams, we know that that is our topic here 
today. It is becoming more sophisticated and internationally 
driven, and this is what we are seeing based on the numerous, 
dozens upon dozens of calls that we receive just in the 
District Attorney's office. This does not include calls that 
are made to law enforcement throughout the county, and this is 
just a fraction of the actual number, as you discussed here 
today, just a fraction of the number that we are anticipating 
are occurring and is happening to our senior citizens within 
our community.
    We believe that our senior citizens are the most vulnerable 
and being preyed upon by these criminals, and most of the time, 
this is because they are at home more often than other 
individuals. They are looking for attention from other people 
and are more trusting, so these criminals are preying upon them 
because they know that they will provide them more information 
than some other citizen may provide.
    It is apparent that these perpetrators know the elderly 
population have more money. They have savings. They have assets 
which can be easily accessed by these victims, and sadly, we 
are talking about thousands of dollars, if not their entire 
life's savings.
    Most of the seniors that we speak to, and we go around, the 
District Attorney's office, we go around and we speak to a lot 
of seniors throughout Luzerne County, and we like to talk to 
them and listen to their stories, and a lot come forward and 
say, we have never gone to the police. We never reported that a 
crime has occurred, that we were actually scammed, and one of--
I would say the number one reason why they do not report is 
because most say they feel stupid. They are embarrassed. ``I 
cannot believe I fell for this scam.''
    I tried to say time and time again, this--although you feel 
for it, they do not discriminate. It happens to people of all 
ages, of every background. Just because you feel that you 
should have acknowledged that this was a scam and you feel 
embarrassed, you should come forward, because that may help 
someone down the line, and it was discussed a lot here today. 
Education is key. We need to make sure that the public knows 
what is going on, the scams that are taking place within our 
communities, so we do not have another individual fall prey to 
these criminals.
    I just want to touch upon three major scams that we are 
seeing within Luzerne County. The number one scam that we are 
seeing is called the sweepstakes scam, as you explained, and 
other people may know it as the lottery scam. A good example of 
this scam, and one of the most heinous examples that I have 
seen occur in Luzerne County, is a case that happened in 2015. 
A woman came forward and called one of my detectives and said, 
``I just want to report a scam that took place upon myself and 
my family.''
    What she stated was that she received a call from a female 
who said she was a lawyer in North Carolina and that she was 
obligated to reach out to the winners of the North Carolina 
Lottery, and she informed this woman that she won $500,000, and 
in order to get this, the lottery winnings, she had to pay 
taxes and the processing fees. She did not believe it, so this 
woman provided her with a name and a number of an individual, 
the Commissioner of the North Carolina Lottery, and she 
thought, okay. I am going to call this number back. We will see 
if this is real, and she calls the number back. A male answers 
the phone and answers by that name and says, ``I am the 
Commissioner of the lottery and you did win $500,000.'' She in 
her mind thought, there is no way that this could be a scam, so 
she ended up sending check after check for the taxes and 
processing fees. She followed up and said, ``Why did I not get 
my winnings yet?'' The woman from North Carolina said, ``Well, 
I want to make you aware that your winnings just increased to 
one million dollars.'' She then told her she had to pay 
additional taxes and fees, which she did.
    After a little while not receiving the winnings, she 
realized that she was scammed. It was a very well organized 
scam, and when she finally--when the victim finally came 
forward and said that--and reported it to law enforcement, she 
was out over $85,000. This was almost her entire life's 
savings, and when she found out that she was going to win the 
lottery and she was potentially going to be receiving $500,000 
to $1 million, she thought, oh, this is God giving me a sign. 
Her husband was ill and she needed the money to help pay for 
his expenses. Instead, she was scammed out of $85,000 and now 
they do not know what to do. They did not know where to turn 
because they did not know how to pay for the expenses, her 
husband's medical expenses.
    This is what we are seeing on a regular basis, and this is 
heart wrenching to law enforcement, because what do you say to 
a woman who is sitting there explaining this story to you when 
you do not have answers. You do not know what to do from law 
enforcement's perspective, because almost every single time 
that we are dealing with this, we know that these individuals 
are from out of the country, so there is not anything that we 
could potentially do because they already received the money 
and we had no ability to even try to track them.
    That is just one example of a scam that has taken place in 
Luzerne County. Another one was touched upon again with the 
impersonating government officials, typically, the IRS or law 
enforcement, the District Attorney's office. We get calls on a 
regular basis saying, ``Law enforcement called me and said I 
owe you money. I got in trouble. I owe a fine, and I do not 
know who to turn to, and we have to explain to them, this was 
just a scam. You are fine.
    I try to add some humor in there when I am talking to 
senior citizens about how one individual, one scammer decided 
he was going to call my office and tell me that law enforcement 
was coming after me, and the District Attorney already signed 
off on the charges. That is an example of how they do not pick 
and choose. They go after anyone, and anyone that will fall for 
any type of scam.
    The third example is the grandparent scam. This is one we 
are seeing a lot of, and what these perpetrators do is they 
call, and sometimes they will call on a regular basis, trying 
to get a little bit of information out of the senior citizen at 
a time, the name of family members, pretending that they are 
the grandchild and saying, ``It is me, your grandchild,'' and 
they will say, ``Oh, Peter, how are you?'' This is how they get 
the information from them, and so they slowly get information 
together on the senior citizen and then 1 day decide that they 
will call back and say, ``This is Peter. This is your 
grandchild. I have been in a terrible accident and I need money 
to help start my medical--help pay for my medical expenses 
while we wait for my insurance to be processed.'' Or, ``I was 
arrested and I need money to get a lawyer to get out of jail.'' 
These older individuals fall for this and they send money to 
them to help protect their family member, their grandchild, 
whomever it may be. They prey upon their vulnerability in that 
aspect.
    Some of the things that we are seeing from law 
enforcement's perspective to help in implementing these scams, 
one is spoofing. Spoofing is--if you do not know, it is where a 
criminal can--I am trying to think of the appropriate words--
disguise the telephone number that they are calling from. Say, 
for instance, if they are pretending that they are IRS, they 
can make it that the IRS number comes up on the Caller ID.
    I actually just spoke to a senior center last week and we 
were talking about scams and one individual raised her hand and 
she said, ``I am not going to fall for it because I have Caller 
ID. There is no way they could get past that.'' That is when I 
started explaining to them, no. When they go on the Internet, 
they--nowadays, you can go on and say, who is related to this 
individual? They will come up with a list of family members, 
and they can see the telephone number. They could have it come 
up on your Caller ID, so when they are trying to implement the 
grandparent scam, they then can have their grandchild's number 
come up on the Caller ID, so these are just some of the 
examples that we are seeing within Luzerne County of the 
different type of scams that are taking place to prey upon our 
residents, and I know that we are trying to keep it sort of 
short, so I am going to stop there. There are different areas 
that I do want to touch upon, maybe when you are asking 
questions----
    Senator Casey. Sure.
    Ms. Salavantis [continuing]. like Western Union, MoneyPak. 
These are different things that we need to start looking at 
closely, because they are used in scams on a regular basis and 
the public needs to be aware of that.
    I will end there, and I want to thank you for giving me 
this opportunity to sit and talk about this very important 
topic.
    Senator Casey. Well, I want to thank the District Attorney 
for the testimony. As you know, your full written testimony 
will be made part of the record.
    I would say to our remaining witnesses, if you are able to 
summarize, because both of your testimonies will be made part 
of the record, just like the District Attorney. If you can 
summarize in maybe 5 minutes or so, and then we can open it up 
for questions.
    Mary Roselle, thank you for being here.

              STATEMENT OF MARY ROSELLE, EXECUTIVE

            DIRECTOR, AREA AGENCY ON AGING COUNTIES

                    FOR LUZERNE AND WYOMING

    Ms. Roselle. Thank you. I would also like to thank you for 
the opportunity to speak on this very important issue.
    We live in a society where, unfortunately, scams are so 
prevalent. People of all ages have fallen victim to these 
predators. Any one of us can become a victim if we are not 
aware.
    Older adults are especially very embarrassed when they 
become victims of the scams. As adults age, they lose so much 
of their independence. They stop driving. They lose peers and 
family members, and they become very vulnerable. They are a 
very trusting generation and they genuinely want to help people 
and believe that they want to help us. They want to help them, 
also.
    Unfortunately, we see so many times it is the caregivers 
themselves, sometimes even the family members, the very people 
that these older adults are putting all of their trust in, that 
then are the ones taking advantage of them.
    We are constantly hearing about someone taking advantage or 
attempting to take advantage or scamming an older adult. Just a 
few weeks ago, we received a call from the police alerting us 
that a consumer in Wyoming County was wiring a very large sum 
of money to Nigeria. This woman is in her 70's and fell victim 
to a scam. The consumer said that she had to wire the money 
because she met someone online that was in the military and he 
wanted to marry her. She needed to wire the money to the 
serviceman's friend in Nigeria so he could get it to the 
military so the serviceman could come home.
    Our Protective Service Unit explained to the consumer that 
this was a scam and that the serviceman was not going to come 
home to marry her, but she refused to believe us. She stated 
that she did not want our help. Many older adults are lonely 
and they just want that human contact. Again, they are trusting 
individuals and cannot believe that someone would be dishonest.
    We have been informed of many cases where contractors have 
taken advantage of older adults. Sometimes, these individuals 
are unable to make repairs on their own and they have no family 
who are able to help. They are so thankful when they find a 
contractor to help them that they are quick to give them a 
deposit and truly believe that they will come back to perform 
the work, but that never happens. Many times, these contractors 
are then out of business or they start a business under a 
different name. The money is gone and the consumer never 
receives the repair.
    We have also heard of consumers receiving calls that their 
child or grandchild has been arrested or is traveling and is in 
need of money immediately, as has been mentioned before. You 
know, these consumers love their families, and again, they are 
eager to help. They wire the money, and, of course, it is a 
scam.
    Several consumers have also reported receiving calls from 
the Internal Revenue Service, as has been talked about already, 
stating that they owed money. Again, to an older adult, they 
hear the word IRS and they panic. They do not want to be in 
trouble, so again, they send the money.
    These are just a few examples. We fear that there are so 
many more consumers that are affected, but they are afraid to 
come forward for fear of their families and their peers looking 
to take away even more of their independence.
    Educating seniors about these scams is so important. We 
have had Janene Holter, Special Senior Agent with the Office of 
the Attorney General's Office, come into our adult active 
centers to help make the seniors aware of current scams. Our 
agency works with local banks and police, who make us aware of 
the consumers that are then potentially affected. We report 
this information to the Attorney General's office.
    We are also able to discuss information with the Elder 
Abuse Task Force, which has been mentioned here earlier. This 
task force was started several years ago as an initiative to 
help increase awareness. The members of the task force include 
State representatives, the District Attorney, county 
detectives, various legislators, educators from Temple 
University, and members of various community agencies and law 
enforcement. It is a great resource for us to discuss problems 
and together resolve issues for older adults.
    We again are very grateful to you, Senator, for allowing 
our agencies to participate in this hearing. We continue to 
need help with education and awareness to help protect the 
older adults who for so many years have protected us. We have 
identified several suggestions where, hopefully, we can receive 
some help, and as members of the community can also help.
    One suggestion is to have maybe a scam segment on a major 
network. Many older adults watch the local news and a scam 
segment can both educate them on what to be aware of and also 
help the older adult understand that they are not alone in 
being targeted so they will not be so embarrassed. Senior 
centers also will continue to help educate and inform seniors 
about these scams. We need to be made aware of them 
immediately. Education is so important.
    We continue to look forward to work with all members of the 
community and legislature to help increase awareness and 
protect all of us from falling victim to these scams.
    Again, I thank you for this opportunity.
    Senator Casey. Well, Mary, thank you very much for your 
testimony.
    Sarah Derhammer.

                 STATEMENT OF SARAH DERHAMMER, 
                 VICTIM OF IDENTITY THEFT SCAM

    Mrs. Derhammer. Okay. Good morning, everybody, and good 
morning, Senator Casey. My name is Sarah Derhammer and I am 
here today to tell my story of identity theft.
    My husband, Melvin, and I were married for 43 years and we 
have five beautiful children. We spent our lives in Kingston 
Township raising our children and working hard. As you know, I 
worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken for 15 years and Long John 
Silver's for 12. My husband worked for Acernese Trucking for 
over 23 years, so we worked hard to pay our bills and to keep 
good credit to provide for our family.
    Sadly, about 5 years ago, my husband passed away after 
battling a lot of illnesses. This brings me to my story on 
identity theft. In November 2015, I received a phone call from 
my credit card company. They informed me that someone was using 
my husband's card and racked up thousands of dollars in charges 
to our account. Luckily, when my husband passed, I informed the 
credit card company of his passing, so they contacted me about 
the suspicious activities.
    The company was wonderful in helping me through the 
investigation process, which took approximately 4 months. The 
credit card company informed me that they identified the 
individual and they would take action in their hands. I was 
luckily not responsible for any of the charges. Unfortunately, 
many people who fall victim to identity theft do not get off 
that easy.
    The thief knew everything about my husband and family, 
which was very concerning. He knew how long we were married, 
how many children we had, and he even called the credit card 
company when the account was frozen to see why the card was 
declined. The company tried to get him to talk to his wife, 
which was an attempt to get him on the phone with me, but he 
refused and said we were separated and he did not want to talk 
to me, obviously, all of which was untrue and an example of the 
great lengths these thieves are willing to go to benefit from 
stealing someone's identity.
    I am here today to tell my story to encourage all 
individuals to pay attention to your credit cards, your bank 
accounts, Social Security numbers, and credit scores. Check and 
please recheck. These thieves pry on individuals with good 
credit, which makes hard-working people feel discouraged for 
spending their life doing the right things so they do not 
become victims of identity theft. Remember, even when you are 
deceased, you and your family can still be victims of identity 
theft.
    Thank you for listening to my story and asking me to be a 
part of this hearing.
    Senator Casey. Well, Sarah, thanks very much for your 
testimony and thanks for bringing your own personal story to 
this, because unless we have witnesses like you that can 
provide a personal perspective, for some people, this can seem 
somewhat distant, so we are grateful you are willing to share 
that story and I just wish you had not been a victim, as well, 
but I think your testimony will help others maybe do the right 
thing and avoid being scammed by listening to your directive to 
both check and recheck. That is good advice for all of us.
    Mrs. Derhammer. I mean, I could not afford to pay it all 
back. Like I told the credit card, there was no way, and thank 
God that I reported that he was deceased, so they took it into 
their own hands. They were very good working with me.
    Senator Casey. Well, thank you very----
    Mrs. Derhammer. I can honestly say that.
    Senator Casey. Thank you for your testimony.
    I will try to get to each of our witnesses with questions. 
I will start with the District Attorney on the question of 
prosecution and how difficult it is to prosecute. If you were 
to align the number of cases with the number of prosecutions 
across the country, there would not be a good match there, 
because we all know how difficult it is to pursue these scam 
artists and the perpetrators of fraud, also difficult to make 
the case stick and to get a conviction, but can you tell us a 
little bit about the challenges that you face with regard to 
these kinds of prosecutions.
    Ms. Salavantis. Well, the challenge with regard to these 
cases is the initial stage, the investigation stage, and as I 
discussed earlier, it is very difficult for law enforcement to 
actually be able to track these individuals who are scamming 
our seniors, and a lot of the times, it helps me in talking 
about Western Union and MoneyPak. A lot of times, these 
scammers, these criminals, use Western Union, which they know 
is a way to get around law enforcement being able to track 
them.
    An example is one that--a person came forward after she 
believed she was scammed, and she said, ``I already sent a 
Money Order through to Chicago. They said they were in Chicago. 
I thought it was my grandchild. I found out it was not.'' She 
said, is there any way that law enforcement can catch this 
person, and we worked closely with the FBI and the U.S. 
Attorney's Office and they sent Federal agents over to the 
location that the Money Order was supposed to be located, but 
because Western Union has the ability--it has 13,000 offices 
throughout the world--they have the ability, if they have the 
confirmation number, they could go to any one of those 
locations and pick up that money.
    When she sent it to Chicago, she believed that it was going 
to Chicago, and when the Federal agents were sitting there 
waiting for this person, male or female, to come in and pick up 
this Money Order, the money, no one showed up. They already 
picked it up at a different location.
    This is an example of the obstacles law enforcement is 
faced with in trying to catch these people who are preying on 
our seniors, and Western Union is one name that I always tell 
seniors, you hear someone say, well, can you wire me over money 
through Western Union. Another big one is MoneyPak. You could 
go into any major store, like Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, you 
could get a MoneyPak. These are the two big companies that they 
use in order to scam and receive the money from our seniors.
    Going back to the question, it is very hard to get to the 
prosecution of the case when you cannot even track down the 
actual person who preyed upon and stole the money from our 
seniors, and that is why it goes back to working closely with 
our Federal agents, working with foreign partners and even the 
financial industries, everybody working together and trying to 
build a good relationship and collaborating on these cases in 
order to be able to track some of these individuals down.
    I think if we are able to do that, we can at least slow 
down these criminal organizations or disband them, but until we 
get to that point, all we could do at this point is make our 
seniors aware of what is going on and educate, educate, 
educate, and I think it goes back to what everybody is talking 
about. I think maybe a national campaign, having more awareness 
out there. IRS scams, they will not call you. These seniors, we 
need to do more to educate them on what is going on in the 
community, all of the scams that are taking place, and who to 
call.
    Senator Casey. Mm-hmm, and I guess a big part of it is just 
to keep encouraging reporting, right?
    Ms. Salavantis. Yes.
    Senator Casey. If a senior feels--or gets a call or has 
some kind of communication, to make sure they report. I guess 
it is, when in doubt, report----
    Ms. Salavantis. Exactly.
    Senator Casey [continuing]. is probably one of the best 
ways.
    Ms. Salavantis. Can I just say one thing with that?
    Senator Casey. Sure.
    Ms. Salavantis. As people come in and they report it to our 
office or law enforcement tells me what is going on, I 
immediately try to issue a press release so the community is 
made aware. The newspapers have been wonderful. The media has 
been wonderful in getting that message out there, so as people 
report, they can help someone else.
    Senator Casey. You have got one full-time detective that 
does nothing but this.
    Ms. Salavantis. Correct.
    Senator Casey. Mary, can I ask you, you heard about the 
Senate Aging Committee kind of top ten scams. Just here in this 
community, the community you serve, what do you think is the 
No. 1 scenario or scheme that you see?
    Ms. Roselle. Honestly, the grandparent scams.
    Senator Casey. The grandparent.
    Ms. Roselle. I mean, I think that, you know, these people 
prey on the fact that, you know, these people want to help 
their grandchildren----
    Senator Casey. Right.
    Ms. Roselle [continuing]. and they--it is unbelievable, the 
information that they have. You know, they know where their 
grandchild has been traveling, I mean, and that makes, 
obviously, the older adult truly believe that that is what is 
happening. They know that they are in Europe, or they know that 
they are in California, and no one knows how they would ever 
find that information out, so they believe them and they send 
the money because they want to help them.
    Senator Casey. So, you hear that a lot locally?
    Ms. Roselle. We do. We do.
    Senator Casey. Mm-hmm. Any--and I know you addressed this 
in the testimony, but just for summary purposes, anything you 
want to say in terms of education or encouraging people to 
report?
    Ms. Roselle. I mean, I really think it is important that, 
sometimes, you know, it needs to be anonymous. You know, again, 
these individuals are so embarrassed. You know, I mean, these 
are people that are bankers. They are educators. I mean, they 
are not people that have not had experience in the past dealing 
with some of these things. They just cannot believe that it 
would happen to them, and they cannot believe the information 
that, again, that these people have, so I think it is 
important.
    I think the media, you know, can do a wonderful job of 
helping us. You know, we, again, go into the senior centers all 
the time to try to educate them. As soon as we know, we get the 
word out to let people know, but you know, we really need to 
educate them and help them understand that it is not just that. 
I mean, we can fall victim to those scams, too. You know, they 
are just--they are very proud people. They do not want people 
to know, and they are so afraid that their son or their 
daughter is going to find out. You know, they already took 
their car away. They already want to be a signer on their 
checking account, and now they are going to say, OK, you cannot 
live by yourself because you have fallen victim to this scam, 
and they are petrified of that.
    Senator Casey. So you have seen it happen, that even people 
that have spent their whole lives dealing with some of these 
issues can still be a victim----
    Ms. Roselle. We have. We have.
    Senator Casey. It is understandable that people would feel 
embarrassed, but we want to keep encouraging them to try to set 
that aside and report so they can track these people down.
    Sarah, when you ran into the problem where your husband--in 
this case, it is your husband's identity stolen-----
    Mrs. Derhammer. Right.
    Senator Casey [continuing]. what resources did you have 
available to you, and is there anything about your experience 
that you hope we would learn more in terms of having additional 
resources or additional ways to help?
    Mrs. Derhammer. To help with--to stop it, is that what you 
mean?
    Senator Casey. To stop, and to investigate it.
    Mrs. Derhammer. Yes. You have to call, when you lose a 
spouse, through your bank accounts, your credit cards, or 
whatever is going on, to let them know, because, like I said, 
the credit card, I called the credit card company and let them 
know that my--and if I did not call, she said it would have 
been possible that I would have been charged for all those--and 
I could never pay for the thousands of dollars that he charged, 
you know.
    Senator Casey. Mm-hmm.
    Mrs. Derhammer. This is what you have got to do. You have 
got to check and you have got to recheck. I should have--they 
had it, but they had to go back through their computers to make 
sure that I called letting them know that my husband was 
deceased.
    Senator Casey. Mm-hmm.
    Mrs. Derhammer. If I did not make that call, I could have 
been responsible for all those charges.
    Senator Casey. Mm-hmm. What----
    Mrs. Derhammer. Or I would have had a lot of testimony to 
go through, you know, that I did not have nothing to do with 
it.
    Senator Casey. Well, that is a good----
    Mrs. Derhammer. That saved me a lot on that big end, you 
know what I am saying.
    Senator Casey. That is a good lesson for all of us.
    Mrs. Derhammer. Yes. Like I said, I told the bank, which I 
had to change, take his name off the account. I had to call our 
bank and with the credit cards, all our resources, to let them 
know that my husband was deceased, and if I did not make those 
calls, I could have been in a lot of serious trouble.
    Senator Casey. Well, Sarah, thank you for your testimony. 
We are grateful you are with us and giving us this information 
about your own experience. It is hard to talk about something 
that happened to your own family----
    Mrs. Derhammer. Right.
    Senator Casey [continuing]. and we are grateful.
    Mary, thank you, and to the District Attorney, we are 
grateful that you are here and working on these issues every 
day.
    I want to thank not just our panel members, but the 
audience, as well. If we had more time, we would do some 
questions and feedback from the audience, but I am being given 
the hook, and they are telling me I am late already, and I want 
to make sure that we have time to say hello on the way out, but 
we are grateful for your testimony.
    Just to be official so we can adjourn, this Special 
Committee on Aging is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:40 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]   
      
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                                APPENDIX

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                      Prepared Witness Statements

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