Senior Financial Empowerment Act of 2021
Bill: S.2116 | Sponsor: Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. (D-NY)
Policy area: Commerce

Summary:
Senior Financial Empowerment Act of 2021
This bill requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to disseminate to senior citizens and their families and caregivers information regarding mail, telemarketing, and internet fraud that targets senior citizens. This includes information about safe and smart financial practices, instructions for referring a fraud complaint to law enforcement, and a toll-free telephone number that connects to a live individual who answers calls from seniors seeking advice about scams or how to report instances of fraud.
Further, the Department of Justice may award grants for the prevention of senior citizen fraud to state attorneys general, state or local law enforcement, senior centers, or nonprofit organizations that provide assistance to seniors.
The FTC must provide education regarding legal obligations and industry best practices with respect to addressing financial exploitation and neglect of seniors to specified financial entities and to employees of financial institutions who may be able to identify elder financial abuse.
The National Institutes of Health must research the increased vulnerability of seniors to scams and fraud due to age-related health and neurological conditions.
The bill expresses the sense of Congress that a week in March of each year should be designated as National Senior Fraud Awareness Week.

To prevent mail, telemarketing, and internet fraud targeting seniors in 
 the United States, to promote efforts to increase public awareness of 
 the enormous impact that mail, telemarketing, and internet fraud have 
 on seniors, to educate the public, seniors, their families, and their 
 caregivers about how to identify and combat fraudulent activity, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Senior Financial Empowerment Act of 
2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The proportion of the population of the United States 
        that is 60 years of age or older will drastically increase in 
        the next 30 years as more than 76,000,000 baby boomers approach 
        retirement and old age.
            (2) Each year, anywhere between 500,000 and 5,000,000 
        seniors in the United States are abused, neglected, or 
        exploited.
            (3) Senior abuse, neglect, and exploitation have no 
        boundaries and cross all racial, social class, gender, and 
        geographic lines.
            (4) Millions of individuals in the United States are 
        victims of financial exploitation, including mail, 
        telemarketing, and internet fraud, each year, and many of the 
        individuals who fall prey to these crimes are seniors.
            (5) It is difficult to estimate the prevalence of fraud 
        targeting seniors because cases are severely underreported and 
        national statistics on senior fraud do not exist.
            (6) The Federal Bureau of Investigation notes that a senior 
        may be less likely to report fraud because the senior--
                    (A) does not know to whom to report the fraud;
                    (B) is ashamed to have been a victim of fraud;
                    (C) does not know that the senior has been a victim 
                of fraud; or
                    (D) in some cases, is concerned that relatives may 
                come to the conclusion that the senior no longer has 
                the mental capacity to take care of the financial 
                affairs of the senior.
            (7) According to a 2011 report by the MetLife Mature Market 
        Institute, the annual financial loss by victims of senior 
        financial abuse is estimated to be at least $2,900,000,000.
            (8) As victims of senior financial abuse, many seniors have 
        been robbed of their hard-earned life savings, and even their 
        homes, and can suffer severe emotional and health-related 
        consequences.
            (9) Perpetrators of fraud targeting seniors often operate 
        outside the United States, reaching their victims through the 
        mail, telephone lines, and the internet.
            (10) The Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act 
        (Public Law 106-168; 113 Stat. 1806) increased the power of the 
        United States Postal Service to protect consumers against 
        persons who use deceptive mailings, such as those featuring 
        games of chance, sweepstakes, skill contests, and facsimile 
        checks.
            (11) During fiscal year 2007, analysts prepared more than 
        27,000 letters and informative postcards in response to mail 
        fraud complaints. During that same fiscal year, postal 
        inspectors investigated 2,909 mail fraud cases in the United 
        States and arrested 1,236 mail fraud suspects, of whom 1,118 
        were convicted. Postal inspectors also reported 162 
        telemarketing fraud investigations with 83 arrests and 61 
        convictions resulting from the investigations.
            (12) In 2000, the Special Committee on Aging of the Senate 
        reported that, each year, consumers lose approximately 
        $40,000,000,000 to telemarketing fraud and estimated that 
        approximately 10 percent of the 14,000 telemarketing firms in 
        the United States were fraudulent.
            (13) Some researchers estimate that only 1 in 10,000 fraud 
        victims reports the crime to the authorities.
            (14) A 2003 report by AARP, Inc., found that the crime of 
        telemarketing fraud is grossly underreported among senior 
        victims, but that individuals who are properly counseled by 
        trained peer volunteers are less likely to fall victim to 
        fraudulent practices.
            (15) The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that the 
        threat of fraud to seniors is growing and changing. Many 
        younger baby boomers have considerable computer skills and 
        criminals are modifying their targeting techniques by using not 
        only traditional telephone calls and mass mailings, but also 
        online scams like phishing and e-mail spamming.
            (16) The Internet Crime Complaint Center is a partnership 
        between the National White Collar Crime Center and the Federal 
        Bureau of Investigation that serves as a vehicle to receive, 
        develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding cybercrime. 
        The Internet Crime Complaint Center processed more than 219,553 
        complaints of internet crime in 2007 and, from these 
        submissions, the center referred 90,008 complaints of internet 
        crime, representing a total dollar loss of $239,090,000, to 
        Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the 
        United States for further consideration.
            (17) Consumer awareness is the best protection from fraud.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Commission.--The term ``Commission'' means the Federal 
        Trade Commission.
            (2) Senior citizen.--The term ``senior citizen'' means an 
        individual who is not younger than 65 years of age.

SEC. 4. INFORMATION AND CONSUMER EDUCATION ON MAIL, TELEMARKETING, AND 
              INTERNET FRAUD TARGETING SENIOR CITIZENS.

    (a) Centralized Service.--
            (1) Dissemination of information.--The Commission, after 
        consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health 
        and Human Services, the Postmaster General, the Chief Postal 
        Inspector for the United States Postal Inspection Service, and 
        the Internet Crime Complaint Center, shall--
                    (A) disseminate to senior citizens and the families 
                and caregivers of the senior citizens information--
                            (i) regarding mail, telemarketing, and 
                        internet fraud that targets senior citizens, 
                        including descriptions of the most common fraud 
                        schemes; and
                            (ii) which shall be--
                                    (I) disseminated in a way that is 
                                easily accessible and user-friendly to 
                                senior citizens; and
                                    (II) proactive so as to teach 
                                senior citizens about scam and fraud 
                                prevention through safe and smart 
                                financial practices; and
                    (B) with respect to the information described in 
                subparagraph (A)(ii)(II)--
                            (i) update the information regularly to 
                        keep pace with the changing nature of criminal 
                        activity; and
                            (ii) include--
                                    (I) instructions on how to refer a 
                                complaint to the appropriate law 
                                enforcement agency; and
                                    (II) a national toll-free telephone 
                                number, to be established by the 
                                Commission, which shall--
                                            (aa) have a live 
                                        individual, rather than an 
                                        automated service, available to 
                                        answer calls from senior 
                                        citizens who are calling--

                                                    (AA) to seek advice 
                                                on where and how to 
                                                report instances of 
                                                fraud; or

                                                    (BB) to ask 
                                                questions about issues 
                                                relating to scams or 
                                                fraud of senior 
                                                citizens; and

                                            (bb) be similar to the 
                                        Fraud Hotline established by 
                                        the Special Committee on Aging 
                                        of the Senate.
            (2) Sharing of information.--The Commission shall--
                    (A) maintain an internet website that serves as a 
                source of information for senior citizens and the 
                families and caregivers of senior citizens regarding 
                the types of fraud described in paragraph (1)(A)(i);
                    (B) work with State law enforcement agencies to 
                create a national database that tracks instances of 
                fraud committed against senior citizens; and
                    (C) in response to a specific request about a 
                particular person, provide publically available 
                information on any record of a civil or criminal law 
                enforcement action taken against the person for fraud 
                that targeted senior citizens.
    (b) Implementation.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Commission shall establish and implement 
procedures to carry out the requirements of this section.

SEC. 5. EDUCATION TO CERTAIN ENTITIES REGARDING FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION 
              OF SENIOR CITIZENS.

    (a) In General.--The Commission shall, in consultation with the 
appropriate Federal financial institutions (as defined in section 
8(e)(7)(D) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 
1818(e)(7)(D))), regulatory agencies, State agencies, and local 
agencies, convene and provide education to the entities described in 
subsection (b) regarding the legal obligations of those entities and 
industry best practices for those entities with respect to financial 
exploitation and neglect of senior citizens.
    (b) Covered Entities.--An entity described in this subsection is--
            (1) a depository institution (as defined in section 3(c) of 
        the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1813(c)));
            (2) a credit office;
            (3) a remittance transfer provider (as defined in section 
        920(g) of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. 1693o-
        1(g)));
            (4) a person who distributes general-use prepaid cards (as 
        defined in section 915(a)(2) of the Electronic Fund Transfer 
        Act (15 U.S.C. 1693l-1(a)(2))); and
            (5) any individual who--
                    (A) is employed by a financial institution;
                    (B) has access to the financial records of senior 
                citizens; and
                    (C) may be able to identify instances of elder 
                financial abuse because of discrepancies in those 
                financial records.
    (c) Required Training.--A State agency may not receive Federal 
funds under this Act unless the agency ensures that the entities 
described in subsection (b) in that State receive appropriate training 
that improves--
            (1) the ability of the entities to recognize evidence of 
        financial exploitation and neglect of senior citizens; and
            (2) the understanding of the entities of the reporting 
        requirements in that State with respect to financial 
        exploitation and neglect of senior citizens.
    (d) Implementation.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Commission shall establish and implement 
procedures to carry out the requirements of this section.

SEC. 6. GRANT PROGRAM TO PREVENT MAIL, TELEMARKETING, AND INTERNET 
              FRAUD AND FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON SENIOR CITIZENS' 
              INCREASED VULNERABILITY TO SCAMS.

    (a) Grant Program.--
            (1) Authorization.--The Attorney General may award grants, 
        on a competitive basis, to eligible entities to carry out fraud 
        prevention activities designed to protect senior citizens.
            (2) Eligible entities.--For purposes of the grant program, 
        an eligible entity is any State attorney general, State or 
        local law enforcement agency, senior center, or other State or 
        local nonprofit organization that provides assistance to senior 
        citizens.
            (3) Priority.--In awarding grants under this subsection, 
        the Attorney General shall give priority to an eligible entity 
        that has established a public-private partnership with a 
        computer or software company that is focused on developing 
        tools to enhance internet scam prevention.
            (4) Authorization of appropriations.--There are authorized 
        to be appropriated to the Attorney General to carry out this 
        subsection $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 
        2026.
    (b) Research.--
            (1) In general.--The Director of the National Institutes of 
        Health shall conduct scientific research related to the 
        increased vulnerability of senior citizens to scams and fraud 
        due to age-related health and neurological conditions.
            (2) Availability of funds.--No additional amounts are 
        authorized to be appropriated to carry out this subsection. 
        Amounts to carry out this subsection shall be derived from 
        amounts not specifically appropriated to carry out this 
        subsection.

SEC. 7. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON NATIONAL SENIOR FRAUD AWARENESS WEEK.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) there is a need to increase awareness of fraud 
        targeting senior citizens;
            (2) a week in March of each year should be designated as 
        ``National Senior Fraud Awareness Week'' to coincide with the 
        end of winter, which--
                    (A) is commonly a period of increased isolation; 
                and
                    (B) precedes tax season;
            (3) the people of the United States should observe National 
        Senior Fraud Awareness Week with relevant educational 
        activities; and
            (4) the President should issue a proclamation supporting 
        increased awareness of senior fraud.
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