WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema today continued her fight to protect Arizona seniors, highlighting the case of a Tucson senior victimized by fraud in today’s Senate Aging Committee hearing.
“As we have heard again today, criminals relentlessly target vulnerable senior citizens,” said Sinema. “The Senior Safe Act empowers people and financial institutions to report suspected instances of elder financial abuse and fraud and helps law enforcement track down criminals who target vulnerable seniors.”
During today’s Aging Committee hearing, Sinema shared the story of a 91-year-old Tucson woman victimized by fraud. The woman’s caregivers gained access to her banking information and stole nearly $200,000 from her by obtaining credit cards in the her name and by making fraudulent transfers from her account. If employees at the woman’s bank had been trained to recognize the pattern of suspicious charges and were able to report it the authorities, as they are now authorized to do under the Senior Safe Act, the criminals might not have been able to victimize this woman for two years.
Sinema led the passage of the Senior Safe Act in the House and worked with Republican Senator Susan Collins as it passed the Senate and became law in 2018. The Senior Safe Act enables financial institutions to work with law enforcement in order to stop the financial abuse of seniors.