DENVER (KDVR) — Preying on the elderly has become a lucrative business for criminals and now the United States Department of Justice is fighting international scam operations with an expansion of the Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force.
The effort is not only successfully tracking scams and netting arrests, but also providing restitution for victims.
An attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office told FOX31 that even her own grandmother was targeted.
“She received a phone call saying that I was in jail that I had been arrested and that I needed money for bail immediately,” she said.
Another family member intervened and hung up the phone.
“She was absolutely beside herself when they did that thinking that she lost her one opportunity to help me,” the attorney said.
This is just one example of the trickery and high-pressure tactics used to get victims to provide money and personal financial information. Fraudsters will sometimes use personal information found online to make their victim believe they are familiar with a loved one.
How DOJ is handling scammers, helping victims
Over the past year, the DOJ and its law enforcement partners pursued 260 cases involving more than 600 defendants.
An Estes Park case yielded the arrest of two people running a lottery scam.
First Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Kirsch told FOX31, “the…
