`Be mindful of fraud, AG warns seniors`

By Hal Johnson
Herald Writer
In northeastern Pennsylvania, a woman paid a total of $185,000 to telemarketers and got a dining room table full of trinkets that weren’t worth $100.

In Crawford County, a man pleaded guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from an elderly Mead-ville woman, who had given him power of attorney.

State Attorney General Mike Fisher Friday told about 130 senior citizens his office and local po-lice will work to punish con men who prey on the elderly. In an effort to prevent fraud and abuse against the elderly, the attorney general distributed Consumer Reference guides and note pads for the elderly to put next to their telephones.

The note pads suggest questions people should ask when a telephone solicitor calls. “If you don’t get the answers you should get but they are still on, just hang up the phone,” Fisher said. Nationally, senior citizens make up 12 percent of the population, but they make up 35 percent of the victims of crime, Fisher said. Fourth in the nation in senior population, Pennsylvania has more of a problem than most other states, he told a conference on the elderly held in Hempfield Station One Banquet Center, Hempfield Township.

For its part, the state four years ago passed nursing home and personal care home standards, giv-ing the state Attorney General’s Office the authority to prosecute elderly abuse cases, Fisher said.

A Medical-Legal Advisory Board of doctors and law enforcement officials discuss the medical and legal issues in complex elderly abuse cases, he said.

Fisher said his office is taking an active role in prosecuting frauds against elderly victims. “If you commit a crime against an elderly person in Pennsylvania, we’re going to get you,” he said.

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Updated May 22, 9999
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