Excerpt from Consumer Fraud Prevention Act of 1995: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, Second Session on H. R. 1499, Consumer Fraud Prevention Act of 1995, April 18, 1996, Serial No; 97 The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:42 a.m., in room 2237, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Bill McCollum (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Bill McCollum, Howard Coble, Fred Heineman, Steve Chabot, Charles E. Schumer, Robert C. Scott, Zoe Lofgren, and Melvin L. Watt. Also present: Paul J. McNulty, chief counsel; Nicole F. Robilotto. assistant counsel; and Tom Diaz, minority counsel. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN McCOLLUM Mr. McCOLLUM. The Subcommittee on Crime is called to order. The subject matter today is the growing problem of telemarketing fraud and victimization of the elderly. Older Americans have rapidly become the preferred targets of fraudulent telemarketers. These victims come from an era when a person's word, like a hand shake, could be trusted. Because of the difficulty in telling a legitimate telephone pitch from an illegitimate one, they fall prey to these conniving callers. As a result, their losses are often staggering. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that telemarketing fraud costs consumers about $40 billion a year. One Ohio widow lost $240,000 to over 50 different telemarketers. She believed that she was donating to charitable organizations. A 92-year-old California woman gave more than $180,000 to telemarketers. She then lost over $5,000 more to another telemarketer who told her he could recover her originally lost money in return for a large advance fee. Some seniors have unwittingly given their enter life savings to telefrauds. Fraudulent telemarketers are constantly refining their cons. If one pitch doesn't work, they smoothly switch to another one. They pressure and conjole until their overwhelmed victim finally surrenders the money. If necessary, these telephonic muggers become abusive and threatening. When they're finished wringing money from their victims, the telemarketers sell the victim's name to another operation, and the calls begin anew. This isn't to say that telephone calls arc the only way our senior citizens have been victimized by swindlers. Home improvement fraud, for example, is rapidly becoming the "con de jour" all across the country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.