Cooperative Extension along with longtime partner the American Association of Retired Persons, were part of a recent agency collaboration spearheaded by state Attorney General Ken Salazar to educate Colorado seniors about misleading sweepstakes. But the idea of being afraid of their telephone, their mail, their visitors, is not conceivable. They think the government wouldn't allow such a thing if it weren't legal. We tell them that if they see a stranger at their door today, don't even open it. Curtis explained that for a number of reasons, elder fraud is tough to fight.
Many scam artists move around a lot.
They base their scams out of the country, making it harder to trace their phone calls to victims. They have to be caught in the act to be prosecuted. Worse yet, the perpetrator often is the victim's child, sister, niece, nephew, nurse. Those same traits make avoiding and reporting the crime especially difficult for them, she said. She cited an incident of an elderly woman who got conned by a home-repair scam.