Nov. 21, 2017
HARRISBURG – Rep. Jesse Topper’s (R-Bedford/Franklin/Fulton) legislation to further protect Pennsylvania senior citizens from being exploited by phone scammers was approved unanimously by the House Tuesday and now heads to the Senate for consideration.
“Phone scammers often target our most vulnerable residents – senior citizens,” Topper said. “This legislation would help state agencies gather valuable information to prevent additional people from falling victim to financial exploitation. Learning how these fraud cases happen is essential to fighting back against lowly scammers.”
Topper’s
House Bill 448 would increase cooperation between state agencies to better protect senior citizens in cases of unwanted telephone calls which lead to financial exploitation.
Specifically, the legislation calls for the state Office of the Attorney General to regularly provide the Pennsylvania Department of Aging with information on investigations its conducting under the state’s Telemarketer Registration Act, which involves scams against someone age 60 or older. This increased cooperation will better aid local Area Agencies on Aging in identifying, or possibly observing, potential patterns of financial exploitation, such as scams and sweepstakes fraud.
Under current law, the attorney general’s office only reports detailed investigations and enforcement actions to the General Assembly.
Representative Jesse Topper
78th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Greg Gross
717.260.6374
ggross@pahousegop.com
RepTopper.com /
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