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# Helping seniors stay safe
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/helping-seniors-stay-safe/
- Published: 2007-06-27T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T01:20:51.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Community, Downtown, #archive-import

*Local groups hope to educate the elderly to avoid con artists*

DOWNTOWN, SM Seniors, do not fear, the Fraud Busters are here.

Recognizing that senior citizens are an attractive target group for scam artists, WISE Senior Services and the AARP have partnered in getting the word out to the elderly through a massive phone campaign.

Through an unspecified grant by the AARP, a non-profit senior advocacy organization, volunteers, also called “Fraud Busters,” at Santa Monica-based WISE Senior Services have been calling elderly residents across the country since February, warning each person about the dangers of fraudulent telemarketing schemes aimed at duping senior citizens out of thousands of dollars.

From the Senior Fraud Prevention Call Center, located in WISE Senior Services offices in the Ken Edwards Center, volunteers are scrambling to reach more than 100,000 senior citizens across the country by February 2008, calling elderly persons who have most likely already been targeted by a scam artist in the past.

The Senior Fraud Prevention Call Center has been in existence for several years at WISE Senior Services. The call center’s efforts are being funded by AARP for the next several months as volunteers attempt to make their way through the list of 100,000 names. Volunteers have contacted 15,000 people since February.

The list of names was supplied by AARP and various police departments across the country. The police departments acquired the names after breaking up several boiler rooms from where the calls targeting senior citizens were made. Many of the people contacted have said they already fell victim to con artist schemes.

“A woman earlier this week said she wished we had called earlier because she unfortunately lost $7,000 to scam artists,” said Petula Storey, the program manager for the Senior Fraud Prevention Call Center.

More than 30 volunteers spend a few hours a week on the phone, warning the voice on the other line of several schemes that are common at the moment, listing warning signs for which they should watch out.

“Scam artists target elderly senior people because they work so hard, they have investments, they have saved money over the years, because they’re trusting in nature,” Storey said.

There are several scams circulating among con artists circles. One of the more popular scams involves a person calling and claiming that a friend or family member has been injured or placed in custody. The scam artists proceeds to ask the victim for money right away.

Other scam artists attempts include a scheme in which they claim the victim has just won the lottery, asking they send money right away to pay for the taxes in order to collect the winnings.

“Various lotteries, investments, these are things that people need to be aware of...things that sound too good and investigate more before the money is handed over,” Storey said.

Several of the volunteers have also been targets of scams.

One volunteer, who asked to remain anonymous, painfully remembered how he was scammed out of a time share scheme about seven years ago. It is for this reason that he decided to start volunteering at the Senior Fraud Prevention Call Center.

The volunteer said he met the scam artist at a convention where he was exhibiting information about a vacation time share. The scam artist had already been arrested in England and Canada before he came to America, the volunteer said.

Many of the volunteers at the call center are senior citizens themselves, making it easier to establish a rapport when cold calling strangers.

Santa Monica resident Geraldine Lowenstein has volunteered at the call center since the AARP program started in February. Though she is not a victim of fraud herself, Lowenstein felt it was her duty to get the word out about con artist schemes to her fellow senior citizen.

The calls can be difficult at times. Some don’t want to be bothered and hang up immediately. Others are more chatty, Lowenstein said, naming Ohio as one of the friendlier states.

“We want people to hang up,” Lowenstein said.“Then we know they’re not listening when (strangers) call.We do feel it is a good sign.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 27, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)