Bill targets senior scams

The House voted 371-48 Wednesday to pass a bill aimed at protecting senior citizens from increasingly frequent financial scams.

The Empowering States to Protect Seniors from Bad Actors Act would create a program within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to dole out $10 million in funding annually to investigate and stop fraud in collaboration with state securities regulators.

“Older Americans have given so much to our great country. We should always have their backs and help protect them from predators that want to take advantage of them,” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), the bill’s lead sponsor, said on the House floor Wednesday. “It is incumbent on us to protect them from scammers and abuse.”

Older Americans lose an estimated $3 billion a year to financial scams, according to the Senate Special Committee on Aging.