The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging convened a hearing in Miami on 2025-03-01 to examine a sharp rise in scams and financial exploitation targeting older Americans and to discuss federal, state and local responses.

Sen. Rick Scott, chairman of the committee, opened the hearing by stressing the size of the problem and the need for stronger federal tools, saying, "This bill will give the Treasury Department the authority to formally designate scam networks as foreign financial threat organizations and freeze their assets, cut off their communication lines, and block their access to our financial system." He framed the issue as both consumer protection and national security and cited a 2025 committee fraud report distributed to attendees.

The hearing brought local law enforcement, advocacy groups and industry to the table to describe tactics used by fraudsters, real-world impacts and possible remedies. The witnesses described frauds ranging from AI-generated "grandchild" robocalls and romance scams to cryptocurrency kiosk and Medicare billing frauds that can wipe out retirement savings or trigger taxpayer costs.

"Our seniors are often especially vulnerable to this kind of fraud," Sen. Scott said. He told the panel and audience that Americans older than 60 lost about $4,800,000,000 to reported scams in 2024 and said many cases go unreported because victims feel shame or uncertainty about whether reporting will do any good.

Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero Stutz described local investigative and outreach efforts. She said the sheriff's office has a dedicated cybercrimes bureau and economic crime section working with international partners and cryptocurrency exchanges, and that her office has set up a hotline and email for residents to report suspected public or homeowners association corruption. "The faster the scams are reported, the better our chances are at stopping them before they vanish," Sheriff Cordero Stutz said.

Jeff Johnson, state director for AARP Florida, told the committee AARP's helplines have fielded cases of catastrophic losses. He said Floridians reported more than $1,000,000,000 in fraud losses in 2024, and "over a third of which was stolen from adults aged 60 and older." Johnson described AARP's education programs, local fraud-prevention events and its Bank Safe program to train front-line bank staff.

Kathy Granger, president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association, outlined what financial institutions can and cannot do under existing law. She described state "hold" laws that let banks delay suspicious transactions and recommended broader information sharing and stronger telecommunications verification. "Banks appropriately have made significant investments in detecting suspicious activity and acting to stop fraud as permitted by law," Granger said, but she cautioned that convincing a customer they are being scammed is often a manual, difficult process.

Brandy Bauer, joint center director for the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHINE) technical assistance center and director of the Senior Medicare Patrol national resource center, described Medicare-targeted fraud schemes and volunteer-based detection efforts. She said the 54 Senior Medicare Patrol programs have helped recover more than $287,000,000 for Medicare and Medicaid since their creation and that recent recoveries included $35,000,000 in one year and $111,000,000 the prior year. "Medicare fraud is a particularly insidious form of financial scam," Bauer said, and she urged seniors to review Medicare summary notices and report suspicious charges.

Panelists discussed several recurring operational problems and possible responses:

- Sophistication of scams: Witnesses said fraudsters now use stolen data, AI-generated voices and deepfakes, and cryptocurrency to obscure proceeds and evade detection. Sheriff Cordero Stutz warned AI voice calls can "sound exactly like your loved one." Johnson and others described romance, investment and imposter scams as common and increasingly high-value.

- Points of payment and money flow: Panelists highlighted cryptocurrency kiosks, overseas call centers, and international money-movement as complicating enforcement. AARP and the Florida Bankers Association cited cases where victims were instructed to put money into kiosks or overseas accounts and then were unable to recover funds.

- Medicare and health-care billing: Bauer described schemes that bill Medicare for unnecessary durable medical equipment (for example, urinary catheters or wound-care products) and said Medicare can pay large sums before beneficiaries notice charges on statements.

- Postal and check fraud: Kathy Granger and others said mail theft and check-washing have resurged; they noted federal moves to reduce check use and Treasury efforts to verify Treasury checks.

- Barriers to intervention: Speakers said banks, social-media platforms and telecommunications firms can be slow to act or legally constrained in information sharing; local law enforcement can be resource-limited in pursuing transnational networks.

Panelists offered operational and policy recommendations that ranged from immediate local steps to federal legislation:

- Strengthen and expand local outreach and education, including trusted-contact or family "passcodes" to verify urgent requests; participants repeatedly urged families to identify a trusted relative to consult before making emergency payments.

- Expand information sharing and intelligence at the state level: Kathy Granger and others advocated for a state-level financial crimes intelligence center modeled on existing Texas efforts to connect local reports to statewide and federal investigatory work.

- Legislative tools: Sen. Scott described the Stop Scammers Act, which he said would let the Treasury Department designate and disrupt foreign scam networks. Panelists also cited the Guard Act (to support law-enforcement investigations) and the TRACE Act on robocalls, and emphasized reauthorization and funding of the Older Americans Act to support community services that reduce isolation.

- Front-line training: AARP's Bank Safe program and similar training were credited with materially improving bank employees' ability to intervene; Jeff Johnson said trained employees were "14 times more effective at helping prevent somebody who is being scammed from actually going through with it."

No formal votes or committee votes were recorded at the hearing. The committee concluded with Sen. Scott thanking the witnesses and saying he would continue to work with state and federal partners to "empower, protect our seniors."

The hearing included specific case examples and numerical estimates cited by witnesses: reported U.S. losses of roughly $4.8 billion by Americans over 60 in 2024 (Sen. Scott's statement), Florida fraud reports exceeding $1 billion in 2024 with over a third from adults 60+ (AARP), and SMP-attributable recoveries totaling about $287 million since the program's creation (Brandy Bauer). Several speakers emphasized these figures likely understate the true scale because of underreporting.

Looking ahead, panelists asked lawmakers to prioritize information sharing, funding for local enforcement and community programs, and continued attention to telecommunication and payment-channel reforms to cut off scammers' access to victims and proceeds.