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In the News : SAIF
Publication: The Acorn
By: Linda Kern
Date: January 9, 2003
Senior Volunteers help Spread the Word to Reduce Consumer Fraud:
Part i of two parts
SAIF (Seniors Against Investment Fraud), a statewide peer-to-peer volunteer program, helps spread the word about fraudulent investment and telemarketing practices.
Led by the California Department of Corporations and funded by the Office of Criminal Justice, the goal of SAIF is to alert and educate Californians over the age of 50 about consumer fraud; how to recognize it and how to prevent it.
RSVP (Retired & Senior Volunteer Program) located at the Goebel Senior Center in Thousand Oaks, is working with the Department of Corporations to recruit and train seniors to carry the message to the public. The role of the peer speaker is to facilitate discussion and increase awareness about consumer fraud to protect seniors from con artists.
Louise Danielle, RSVP director, who received a grant for the SAIF program, became interested because she knew seniors who had been scammed and didn't report it. They're either embarrassed, overwhelmed or don't want to believe it happened to them, Danielle said. She applied for the grant because there are many retirees in Conejo Valley-Las Virgenes who are potential victims of consumer fraud.
The SAIF program includes a 16-minute video, a lecture, handouts and a question and answer period It provides information and tools to prevent scams or fraud.
Volunteers will speak to anyone, but are trained especially to help seniors, Danielle said. She wants to expand the program into other agencies, organizations, churches, synagogues and other groups.
"The program is geared to the elderly because they're so targeted, so vulnerable," Danielle said. "I hope we will educate all the seniors in the Conejo Valley and the surrounding areas on how to protect themselves against identity theft, telemarketing and investing scams. I want to empower them."
George Baird, 73, of Thousand Oaks, is a SAIF volunteer as well as a police volunteer for the city of Thousand Oaks. "Crime prevention is heavily emphasized and the SAIF program fits right into this," Baird said. "It compliments what I'm already doing."
Peggy Rothring, 63, a SAIF volunteer said, "I am absolutely incensed about the telemarketing calls that I'm personally receiving. People who are living alone are incredibly vulnerable to those on the phone trying to relieve them of their money. Some people living alone are lonely and hear a friendly voice and are sucked into it," Rothring said. "The person calling is trying to relieve them of the contents of their pocketbook."
RSVP, which has 13 volunteers who are willing to start educating, is seeking organizations which are ready to request the program. Danielle said she needs agencies to say, "They need us."
More than 24 million people nationwide become victims of fraud. Most are over age 50. RSVP can be reached at (805) 381-2742.
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Editors Note: Click here to go to Part 2 of this series.
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