Nassau lawmaker wants to study senior scams

A surge this year in telephone and internet scams bilking Long Island seniors out of millions has prompted a Nassau legislator to propose a plan to check if existing laws adequately protect the elderly.

With a cost of $250,000, a bill introduced earlier this month by Legis. C. William Gaylor III (R-Lynbrook), would create an 11-member commission to not only study the effectiveness of existing statutes but also teach older residents how to protect themselves from scammers.

Gaylor said his proposed Nassau Commission to Combat Senior Citizen Theft, Fraud and Scams would include representatives from Nassau's district attorney's office, police and social service departments as well as the county attorney.

“I want to form a group that would evaluate current laws. Are they adequate to protect seniors? And what can we do to educate and inform seniors? What do we need to prevent these scams?” Gaylor said.

Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said she welcomed Gaylor’s efforts.

“I’m glad the legislature is exploring ways to prevent these kinds of scams,” Singas said. 

Elder scams appear to be on the rise, Singas and other officials have said, in part because it is a low-risk, high-reward crime.

“You don’t need to put a gun in somebody’s face to steal their money anymore,” Singas said. “You just need to be able to get on the internet.”

Singas said her office has already provided bank officials in Nassau with training to help them identify potential victims by asking customers why they might suddenly be withdrawing large amounts of cash. 

Nassau police said they received 275 phone scam reports from January through mid-July, and 145 involved senior citizens. That’s a big jump from 2018, when police said they received 138 reports of scams against the elderly.

Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said last week that the department has hosted more than 100 community meetings aimed at educating residents on how to protect themselves.

“The Nassau County Police Department has been training our senior citizens over the past year to fully educate them on what to look out for and to call the police at any time either to clarify the call and/or to make a report,” Ryder said. “We will continue these trainings and I can’t stress enough for all of our residents to contact the police.”

Suffolk police received 522 scammer reports during the first six months of 2019, up from 320 during the same period in 2018, Commissioner Geraldine Hart said last week at a news conference to raise awareness of scams. 

Like their Nassau counterparts, Suffolk police have held several news conferences this year to bring attention to the issue. Suffolk officials have conducted presentations on senior scams to community groups and issued warnings on social media. They have also encouraged people who believe they have been contacted by con artists to call 311. Operators with the county’s nonemergency hotline have been trained to refer those calls to the proper law-enforcement agency.

Sometimes con artists identify themselves as police officers and tell victims they need to send money or provide the serial numbers of gift cards to bail loved ones out of jail, authorities said. Others claim to be IRS representatives demanding money to settle outstanding tax bills.

PSEG officials said at last week’s Suffolk news conference that scammers are identifying themselves as utility employees and demanding money to pay outstanding energy bills.

The con artists often ask for a few thousand dollars, but sometimes they set their sights higher. Fraudsters told a Plainview senior earlier this year that he had won $5.7 million in the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes, but that he needed to pay thousands of dollars in taxes and fees before he could collect the prize. Lenkeisha Bolton of Queens Village and Dimitri Blanchard of Baldwin were accused of stealing $147,000 from the man and were charged earlier this year with third-degree grand larceny and other charges. Their cases are still pending, according to court records.

Seniors are especially vulnerable to scams because they are often unaware that personal information can be gleaned from social media, officials said. Many victims are reluctant to report rip-offs because they are embarrassed. Some may engage with thieves because they are lonely. 

A group of five seniors who met informally with Gaylor on Wednesday all said they had been contacted by scam artists. They offered several suggestions for protecting people from rip-offs.

Geri Catalano of North Lynbrook said police should work with churches, synagogues and other houses of worship to teach seniors about potential scams. 

Retailers need to tell their clerks to ask people why they are buying gift cards for large amounts of money, and inform their managers if the customers say it is for bailing a loved one out of jail or a tax bill payment, said Larry Lombardo of Lynbrook, a retired New York Transit Police officer.

"When they ask for a gift card, that is the key. That is when you know something is wrong," Lombardo said. "You can't use a gift card to bail someone out." 

Law-enforcement officials say these are especially tough cases to investigate because the scam artists are often based in other nations. Domestic fraudsters can be tough to track because they often use untraceable phones.

“We’ve got to do a better job of educating our seniors,” Gaylor said. “Nobody wants to see them victimized. This is a public safety concern.”