U.S. Reports Largest Crackdown on Fraudsters Targeting Older Americans

Prosecutions of fraud against U.S. seniors have reached a new high, with more than 400 people around the world accused of scamming older Americans out of more than $1 billion in the largest crackdown of its kind in history, reports Voice of America . This year saw a 55 percent spike over last year, when more than 260 people were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with defrauding more than 2 million Americans out of about $750 million in total. "What makes these crimes particularly heinous is not only the vulnerability of the victims, not only the breach of trust involved, but also the victims' stage in life — the victims usually do not have the opportunity to recover from the financial loss," stated Attorney General William Barr. He added that more than 25 percent of all the perpetrators have been prosecuted, and Justice has been combating senior fraud in multiple areas. In February, the department secured restraining orders against five companies and three individuals who facilitated hundreds of millions of robocalls — and in December, Justice reported that it had stopped more than 600 money mules hired by criminals to move stolen money worldwide.