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State Legislator Seeks to Stamp Out Elder Fraud
By Erin Miller, Wapakoneta Daily News
July 22, 2005
Ohio is leading other states in addressing the defrauding of the elderly, a state legislator says, and locally, the number of fraud cases involving identity theft is on the rise, a county official says.
Gov. Bob Taft signed into law June 15 House Bill 48, which increased the penalty for people convicted of committing identity theft when the victim is 65 or older or disabled.
The bill's sponsor, State Rep. Jim Hughes, R-Columbus, a former prosecuting attorney, said he wrote the legislation in response to the rising number of fraud cases involving seniors and hearing about the lasting effect the crimes have on older victims.
"One of the things I do remember as a county prosecutor was how devastated the victims of identity theft are in terms of trying to get their credit back, particularly those that are disabled or are seniors," he told the Wapakoneta Daily News in a telephone interview. "Some of my friends are still prosecutors and they said it was still that way, as far as people targeting seniors and disabled. That's what prompted me to go after them and make this law and protect those types of people."
Since Taft signed the bill into law last month, Hughes said representatives of the Council of State Governments and the National Conference of State Legislators have contacted him about using the law's wording in similar measures in other states.
Identity theft and fraud crimes against the elderly are more serious than crimes against younger victims, Hughes said.
"They've worked their whole life and maybe have retired and that's their whole life savings that's now gone," the representative said. "They don't have the earning potential and capability that (younger workers) have."
Hughes said he is not working on any other legislation pertaining to crimes against the elderly, adding that increasing the penalty for defrauding seniors corrected a "blatant" need.
The increased penalties may decrease the number of crimes against the elderly in the future, he said.
"The same way society has done for a child rapist - we have an increased penalty for those that rape," Hughes said. "People start to realize, 'Hey, if I do this against a child, a senior citizen or a disabled person, I'm going to go to jail longer.' They might think twice about doing it."
Auglaize County Prosecuting Attorney Ed Pierce told the Wapakoneta Daily News he has seen more cases of identity theft in the county.
"I think fraud itself is on the rise from the aspect of computers," Pierce said in a telephone interview. "With the ability to obtain credit and order things by setting up accounts through the Internet, I'm aware of cases of fraud dealing with another eBay type organizations where there are auctions and you auction something off and the person doesn't have the property."
Most of the victims have not been senior citizens, Pierce said.
"I don't have anything concrete to say why we've not seen a big rise in it," the prosecuting attorney said. "A guess would be that in smaller communities, families are more closely tight-knit and kids watch out more for their parents and are more involved in their parents' lives than in larger communities where there's a scattering of families. I don't know that, but that would be an educated reason as to why we don't see as big a rise as other places."
Employees at the Auglaize County Council on Aging in St. Marys keep their eyes and ears open for stories of fraud and identity and work to keep county seniors informed of the latest scams and where to go for help, Executive Director Christina Roby said.
If employees do learn of a possible crime, they have several ways to help the victim, depending on the situation, she added.
"We have certain steps that we do follow," Roby said. "Sometimes it's family members that we contact. Sometimes it's other agencies, individual from the county that we contact or it could be a legal professional."
Roby said she believes Auglaize County officials serve the county's seniors well.
"We try to keep (seniors) as informed as we possibly can and work with county agencies, too," she said. "We have an excellent county and good people that keep an eye out for our elderly."
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