City Council - Human Services Committee Hearing on Docket #0283

Thank you for watching!

Good morning. For the record, my name is Erin Murphy, At-Large City Councilor, and I am the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Human Services. Today is March 9, 2026, and the exact time is 10.01. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being livestreamed at boston.gov backslash city-council-tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and Fios Channel 964. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.hs.boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all Councillors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. Individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify. If you are interested in testifying, you can sign up at the sign-in sheet in the chamber, or if you want to testify virtually, you can email Central Staff Liaison Megan Cavanaugh

That's M-E-G-H-A-N dot K-A-V-A-N-A-G-H at boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the email. Today's hearing is on docket 0283, order for a hearing regarding elder scamming and fraud protection. This matter was sponsored by myself and Councillor Flynn and referred to the committee on February 4th. Today, I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councillor Flynn. Councillor Flynn, you can start with your opening statement, please.

Thank you, Council Murphy, for chairing this important hearing. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the administration panel that's here from the Boston Police Department, from the licensing and from the AidStrong and want to thank them for their professional work that they have been doing, not just on this issue, but on many other issues impacting residents and safety. In September 2025, the Boston Police issued a community alert for residents, especially our seniors, about an increased risk of home improvement fraud. BPD reported that Boston residents have paid Tens of thousands of dollars for masonry, driveway, paving, chimney, basement, roof, fence repair, only to be left with worse damage or little to no improvement.

Some seniors were manipulated into paying home repair work that is upwards of $20,000 to $30,000. Millions of seniors across the country fell victim to some type of financial fraud every day, according to the federal government, racking up more than $3 billion in losses. This includes romance, lottery, sweepstakes, scams, scams in home, Repair, Banking, Insurance, Home Sales. Criminals may communicate with our seniors directly online over the telephone, through mail, email, door-to-door, or and directly through TV and radio. They employ predatory sales techniques to gain their targets' trust. Seniors are usually targeted as they tend to have financial savings. They might own a home. They might have good credit, which makes them attractive to scammers.

Our seniors have the right to age in place and feel safe in their homes and communities without disruption. Again, I want to acknowledge the Boston Police and Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, I just would add one other The group of people that are often targeted is veterans, many senior veterans, older veterans rather, and they call them shocks, I believe.

A technical name for them but I was down at the DAV conference over the last weekend and that was one of the workshops I listened to was people calling up asking to help veterans with their VA claim or some type of compensation or housing issue and similar to what we're talking about now. Again, I want to say thank you to you, Chair, for bringing this forward and looking forward to the discussion.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Flynn. Good morning. I want to thank the panelists for joining us today. We've been joined by Gerald Cahill, Deputy Superintendent of the Boston Regional Intelligence Center. We've been also joined, thank you, by James Chin, Superintendent Chin, Emily Shea, the Commissioner for AidStrong, and thank you for being here. You're working right up. To tomorrow. Good luck tomorrow. Thank you. And Kathleen Joyce, the chairwoman for the licensing board. This hearing is regarding elder scamming and fraud prevention. I filed this hearing order alongside Councilor Flynn because protecting our older residents is a responsibility we take very seriously here in the City of Boston. Too many seniors are being targeted by scams involving home repairs, financial services, technology, and other schemes that can cause devastating financial and emotional harm. And I know all residents fall to these scams, but I do believe this focus should just be on how we can help.

I believe that our veterans, like Councilor Flynn mentioned, but also our seniors are more vulnerable, and I've seen, looking forward to hearing from you that many times seniors feel embarrassed and don't want to share it so oftentimes they keep it to themselves so I hope this information today will help lift that up and you highlighted which is something that seems so There's a lot of companies out there that make veterans believe you have to pay to receive your benefits, which you've earned. So thank you for uplifting that. That's another scam that is crazy when you see it happen. Many of our older residents are aging in place and deserve to feel safe in their homes and communities. Today's hearing will allow us to hear directly from Emily Shea from the AIDS Strong Commission, the Police Department, and the Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing to just hear all the work I know you are doing and hopefully this can help prevent, educate residents and respond to these crimes.

It's also an opportunity for us to discuss how we can strengthen coordination and outreach so that older adults across Boston are better protected. So thank you for being here. I will pass it off. We've been joined also by Reverend Councilor Culpepper. If you'd like an opening statement.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Murphy. Thank you, Councilor Flynn, for holding this important hearing. Unfortunately, scams and financial exploitation targeting older adults, from contractor fraud to impersonation and online scams, continue to evolve. It's important that we better understand the trends impacting older residents and to examine how government agencies are working together to prevent fraud, Educate residents and protect our seniors across the city and here's what's interesting for me Saturday I had a conversation with this musician who is teaching my four-year-old grandson how to play the piano. and one of the conversations we had, he kept saying, I need to talk to you, I need to talk to you, I need to talk to you, I need to talk to you.

So I said, okay, I'm all ears. Guess what he started talking about? Being scammed. Out of $10,000. And he is upset. Hopefully he'll make it this morning. His name is Paul White to just talk about how it happened and how he's unable to get the ear of folks so they could try and get it resolved. So it's real. And hopefully we can come up with some ways At least educate our seniors so that they'll be informed about what not to look for, what to look for, what not to do, and who to call. And so I thank you this morning. Murphy, and Flynn for scheduling this hearing. It's an important one. Good to see you, Emily.

Good to see you, too.

Thank you. So you guys will pass it off to the panelists if you've decided who will start.

Hi everybody, I'm gonna I'm gonna kick us off but my name is Emily Shea and I serve as a strong Commissioner for the City of Boston and Thank you for the opportunity to be here once again today engaging in conversation about these important topics involving older people in the City of Boston. It's important that we continue to use this platform to bring attention to these critical issues that impact so many of our older residents especially older adults and I would say that scams in particular I feel like we can never talk Enough About because it's only by continuing to elevate and raise the issue with people all the time that we can prevent scams from happening Every day more and more older Bostonians are falling victim to scams and scammers are becoming increasingly creative and bold in their tactics. We are fortunate to have strong partners in this fight both within the city such as

Our colleagues here from Consumer Affairs, MBPD, and externally with organizations such as AT&T. Together, we are committed to ensuring older adults have the tools to not only take preventative measures in avoiding scams, but also the know-how to recognize fraudulent activity, respond appropriately, and report scammers. It's essential that we all continue to raise awareness, provide accessible resources, and work together to protect older adults from scams. At Age Strong, we do this in a few different ways. First, we work collaboratively with many groups to educate older adults about scam prevention and to connect people to resources if they've been scammed. In the past, we've participated in multiple community education scam events with partners, including the Pension Action Center, the state's Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, the FTC, the DA's office,

Asian American Civic Association, the banks, IRS, AT&T, and others. I think there's a lot of people that are interested in elevating this issue, and it's important that we all work collaboratively together. We work closely with BPD's community service officers who hold scam presentations throughout the community and I've even heard them at neighborhood association meetings kind of elevating scam issues that they're seeing. We work closely with the Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing and refer cases that require further investigation, especially those related to credit card and utility fraud. We provide SCIM education in our seniority magazine. with each issue highlighting a different type of scam. Starting this month we'll also be sharing regular social media updates featuring the scams highlighted in the magazine to further educate older adults on ways to stay safe from scammers.

Additionally, each month we pick a select number of the magazine articles and we translate them into Spanish and get those out into the community. And we make sure that the scam article is always included in this bunch. We also have AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP volunteers who are trained in a program called Money Smarts for Older Adults. This curriculum includes identifying scams targeting the older population, recognizing and reducing the risk of financial exploitation, and Guarding Against Identity Theft. Our volunteers offer this program to groups of older people throughout the community. We work closely with people that have been scammed, helping them navigate networks that can be very confusing to not only report the scam but also to see if anything can be done.

We work with partners, like I said, from BPD, the Attorney General's Office, Consumer Affairs, Greater Boston Legal Services, Elder Protective Services, credit card companies, and more. I mentioned before that there are lots of partners involved in the effort to prevent and address And given that members of the public may be tuning in, I wanted to talk about a couple of other ones. First, the Suffolk County DA's office has a program called Fraud Fighters. which is a scam education program where they are educating groups of older people across Boston. The second organization that I want to mention is AARP. who does a lot around scams. They have a national AARP fraud watch network. They have a fraud watch hotline where you can report scams and they can track what scams are trending in different areas of the country.

They also educate about scams sending regular emails, highlighting scams in their AARP magazine, and they train community volunteers to provide scam education workshops. They also submitted a bill at the state level that is new for this legislative cycle that is focused on regulation of cryptocurrency kiosk machines which is one of the new frontiers for scammers. Scammers are creative and change their tactics regularly. By working together, and it will really take all of us, we can continue to empower older people with the knowledge and resources they need to stay safe. Thank you for your time and commitment to this important issue.

Thank you, Emily. Good morning, Councilors. My name is Kathleen Joyce, and I'm the Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding scams targeting older adults. Our office works closely with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office to assist consumers who encounter problems with businesses and to educate Boston residents about their consumer rights and how to avoid scams. I'm fortunate to work with a very dedicated team and we're grateful for the strong partnership we have with the Attorney General's Office and our colleagues across city departments. Together, through case mediation, community outreach, and collaboration with departments like Age Strong, We work to ensure Boston residents, particularly seniors, have the information and support they need to protect themselves from fraud and financial exploitation. How our office comes in.

Residents typically reach out to us when they encounter a problem with a business or believe they may have been targeted by a scam. We receive calls and emails from consumers on a daily basis, and many residents are referred to us through the Attorney General's Office or other city departments. We make it very easy for residents to contact us. We can be reached through our website, boston.gov slash consumer or by phone at 635-3834 by email at consumer at boston.gov or they can come right into our office. Our office is also active in the community through outreach events. We have four scheduled in the month of March. We have one tomorrow in Codman Square and one at the end of the month right here in downtown Boston. We work with outreach programmers, particularly at senior centers in neighborhood and do neighborhood meetings where we help residents understand their consumer rights and how to recognize a scam.

Often a resident will reach out simply saying something doesn't feel right. They'll call our office to intervene before a scam results in significant financial loss. While scams are becoming more sophisticated, education and early intervention remain some of our most effective tools. Through continued outreach, strong partnerships and accessible consumer assistance, we help ensure Boston seniors are informed, protected and empowered. Our work produces real results. One real life example in the last year was an elderly resident, actually from Quincy, who was scammed out of $70,000 by a caller from California. What we did, our consumer affairs assisted in contacting the FBI and the postal inspector. This urgent response led to the perpetrator being caught and the consumer recovering their money.

The broader implication of this is that while we're primarily focused on Boston and Everett, we won't turn anyone away because prompt action is critical for a positive outcome. We, in the last fiscal year, we closed over 1,000 consumer cases and helped recover more than $264,000 for residents. Our office remains committed to working with all of you and our community partners to strengthen protections for older residents and prevent these scams before they happen thank you very much for your time today.

Good morning, Chair and members of the Council. I am Deputy Superintendent Jerry Cahill, Assistant Bureau Chief of the Bureau of Intelligence Analysis, which houses the Boston Regional Intelligence Center. I'm also joined by Superintendent James Chin Bureau of Community Engagement. On behalf of the Boston Police Department, thank you for the opportunity to speak about Elder Scheme and Fraud Prevention. Protecting older residents from financial exploitation require strong coordination across city agencies, law enforcement, and community partners. The Boston Police Department works closely with the Age Strong Commission, the Boston Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing, and community groups across the city to share information, issue community alerts, investigate complaints, and provide outreach and education to its residents. Strengthen these partnerships in improving communication across agencies is essential to identifying emerging scam trends, preventing victimization,

and ensuring older adults in Boston remain safe and supported in their community. I look forward to answering any questions today, and again, thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Thank you. We will start, thank you for your testimony, we will start with Councilor Flynn.

Thank you Madam Chair. Again, thank you to the panel for being here for the important work. You are doing and just want to, I mentioned the scam against veterans, but people will call up a veteran that doesn't receive or doesn't currently receive benefits that they Thank you very much. But at the same time, they'll take a percentage of the benefits. But the best way to get your benefits that you've earned at the VA is going through a

Veterans service organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion Post or I'm active with the Disabled American Veterans, they do it for free. They don't take any money at all. They don't take any percentage. It's a congressionally charted organization. And that's their mission is to help veterans. So I just wanted to highlight the importance of not paying and many more. Thank you. You can give me a call at City Hall and I'll put you in contact with the appropriate people at the DAV or the Veterans of Foreign Laws. Let me just ask a couple of questions.

Maybe I'll ask the superintendent and Emily Shea this question. And the superintendent and I work in Emily as well. We work a lot in Chinatown with residents in the community. In Chinatown we have a lot of elderly people that live there in the various residential buildings. Many of them, or most of them, Speak Cantonese. But is this a concern where immigrants are also taken advantage of because of language-related issues or... may be someone that speaks the language that they speak, and it might not be English, but they're exploiting them because of their, for various reasons.

But I do think language and communication access could be a challenge as well, but just want to see what your thoughts might be or how we can continue to work together on that, Superintendent or the Commissioner.

Sure, I think skimmers, as I mentioned, they're super creative. and Tricky. And I think that they will pray on anything that they can pray on, including if somebody speaks another language and might not understand things as well if somebody might be confused I mean I think that they use all the tricks in the book to try to to try to get to somebody and certainly So what we do is

So what we do in the Boston Police Department is in the Bureau of Community Engagement, I have officers that actually speak Cantonese, and they go out and do presentations in the language. We understand that the challenges are out there that English is not everybody's first language. We do that in various neighborhoods across the city based on the officers' language access that we can put those presentations in the language that they do speak. A lot of our community service officers are multilingual and they do do those presentations in different languages so it's all about education and a lot of them come from countries that they're not familiar with scams and frauds and you know we educate them on that too.

Thank you Superintendent and thank you Emily and I think maybe about six months ago and I think Emily mentioned it You work with the Asian American Civic Association, and I was at one of their workshops on this issue. Boston police were there. They were speaking in Cantonese as well. and it was a great workshop. Others were there. I think the district attorney's office was there providing some good information. So I want to acknowledge some of the groups that you highlighted, Emily, Asian American Civic Association, I think that's Mary Chin, isn't it? Her organization on Tyler Street. And Superintendent, that's one of the reasons I always, in various

I always talk about how important it is to my constituents to have Asian and Asian American police officers I think it's critical. I think Boston Police does that well, and some of them speak Cantonese also, so they're very effective in District 2, as you know, throughout the city, Superintendent, and I just want to acknowledge the Asian and Asian police officers that contribute so much to Boston and to all the residents. Well, let me ask one question, whoever would like to take it. If elderly people have a caretaker that comes in once a week or twice a week and they help them out with...

You know, whether it's medical related or just running errands or something, is there anything that the elderly person should know about in terms of taking precaution just to ensure that That person is not taken advantage of by a caretaker.

Similar to everything else, somebody should make sure that they're keeping their I think when you think about a lot of people being taken advantage and I think when I think about scams I think about people maybe that don't know folks but certainly if you're thinking about people being taken advantage of often it is somebody that knows the person right a caretaker a family member and those would be good things then for us to partner with our elder protective services program about. They would be investigating cases of

Abuse, Neglect, Financial Exploitation, and also with BPD.

Commissioner Shea pretty much said it perfectly. I mean, some of these caretakers might be close family relatives, but I would I know there's a trust issue but if there's any You know, if families see this happening, of course report it to the police immediately or even to the age commission. It's a tough situation for an elder to be in because they are being trustworthy to a person they think is going to take care of them, have their best interest, but we would highly recommend not giving any type of personal information out to anybody.

Thank you, Jerry. Madam Chair, that's all the questions I have for right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilor Culpepper.

Thank you. Councilor Murphy. Emily, I just had a couple of questions for you with regard to the crypto currency kiosks that we've been seeing around the state. Have we seen any in Boston?

That might be a better question. I'm going to toss this on over to Jerry, if that's okay, Deputy Superintendent.

Councilor, yeah, there are some in Boston. Where are they? I can get you the locations. Please. We actually went on stuff. I believe we were with the CSOs where we started. We were thinking about putting flyers up in front of the crypto ATMs pretty much saying, why are you taking this money out? Because that's what a lot of these scammers are doing. When you're working with crypto, it is a very... Our biggest thing with crypto fraud is trying to get To get the information as quickly as possible so we can freeze the money. A lot of these scams are coming from across the seas, so it has been a very, very difficult I guess scam to stop the money and get the money back. So we've thought about different ways to help Educate people on that, which we've done.

Whether, like I said, we were thinking about maybe possibly putting posters by these ATMs just to show people make sure you're taking the money out for the right reasons and things like that.

Have you been successful in getting any of the money back?

We've been successful in getting some, I would believe, but there's been a lot of times where we haven't. And we've actually sent one of our detectives to specialized training to help with this. He's all the cases that come in, he'll deal with. and he's been very well educated on how to try to get it back, but it's extremely difficult.

Once it's gone, it's gone.

Yeah, it's extremely difficult and we've seen people lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto for various schemes.

Kathleen, I just had a question about you. You said you closed over 1,000 cases and you recovered $264,000.

Yes, not just on elder scams, but in general all the cases that come into our office from the Attorney General's office.

How much have you recovered for elder scams?

I don't have those numbers broken down, but I can get back to you with that.

Okay. Councilor, I can give you a quick, just not a brief. So last year, fraud reported by elders in Boston was just about 7.2 million. which is definitely underreported we know that there were different different scams doing it we could probably look and see how much money we got back through our investigations if any if any I know we were at a I think you were at that Compstat meeting, community Compstat, where one of the superintendent's offices actually helped a lady, I think, get, might have been $25,000 back. So there are actually opportunities to get it back, like I said, but we can look at some numbers that we've recovered this year at least.

And this is for anyone. What are the most popular, take away cryptocurrency, because I know that.

So for elders, I can tell for elders, our most popular are imposter scams, whether a bank calling, a business, Someone representing law enforcement saying someone's under arrest. A hospital saying someone, individuals in the hospital, they need to pay a bill. Things like that. Through Boston last year, that was about 1.8 million in losses. There were also computer-generated pop-up scans, which accounted for about 1 million. So those are kind of the two most popular types of scans that were done to elders last year.

So I'm aware that there are some scams that originate from the country the person is from. They'll call and say they're from law enforcement or a banking institution from a country that they originally came from and said that they have some kind of problem with the law enforcement or something like that. And then they say you have to send money Thank you. Not locally, but from the country the person's from. So that's why it's very difficult to track those. It's hard to get, yeah.

Yeah. And Kathleen, I have one final question.

Oh yeah, go ahead.

Madam Chair. Of course. With regard to the contractor and home improvement fraud, because I see that quite a bit, what tools do you have that are able to track and Work with the seniors when they have been scammed by a contractor or some kind of home improvement fraud because, I mean, We see that a lot, right? And how are we using different tools to communicate, especially with seniors that aren't online, Don't use computers much. How are we communicating with them? And then when they are scammed, how are we working with them to help them deal with the contract or home improvement scams?

So to answer the first part of your question, a lot of our work is outreach, the type of work you're talking about, old-fashioned postcard mailings, but we try to meet the The elders where they're at will go to community meetings, neighborhood coffee hours, will go to the public libraries, and we work directly with different elderly groups. If we receive Notice of a scam, a contractor scam, our team will do different things. We'll contact the police. We will try to contact the contractor. and we guide the elder person through whatever the next steps might be depending on what stage we've received notice of the scam. So we try to help them navigate their next steps and guide them and we would get police involved as soon as we possibly could.

That's a good idea.

Yeah.

Yeah, I would. Yeah, I mean. We work with a lot of seniors. Even if you just sent out information that we can put out in the vestibule so seniors could know.

We'll follow up with your office for sure. Thank you.

I can also say, Councilor, like you mentioned, a lot of seniors probably aren't on social media or on the internet. So we developed a book up the brick. specifically referencing scams targeting the elderly, which we've been handing out our community comm stats. We've been the community engagement bureau to get out to senior meetings and stuff like that, our CSOs. So like I said, we understand that a lot of seniors might not be on social media and things where we put a lot of stuff out so they have a booklet so they can look at. So we try to, hopefully that will help. We absolutely will. We have plenty. They're in different languages, so we absolutely will. 155 Humboldt Avenue.

You can come anytime.

Thank you.

Thank you. I have a few follow-up questions. I was like going last because my colleagues asked good questions. What trends are we seeing? Like technology changes so quickly. And I know we had this hearing last year and got a lot of good information, but things are different and the thieves are savvy. And tricky, like how can we stay ahead of them and what trends do you see or what do you see in the future coming that may not have really hit us yet?

It's constantly changing with the AI. A lot of fraud experts are reporting that AI generated fraud You know, as a multiplier going forward, things can be done with AI now that, I mean, it could make Show my voice on the phone thinking I'm calling one of my sisters or something like that. So AI is going to be the biggest thing. It's just making it easier. I think creativity-wise, it's going to change everything, I believe.

And all of you I know have and you've mentioned them like a book or flyers you put out. Is there a way you could share those with our offices so that we can then share out in our own like platforms that we elevate? I know like Culpepper said like you know at the church or places because what we see time and time again is like if you have a relationship and they trust you they're gonna wanna you know share something with you so that would be helpful

The CSOs have all that information also at the police level?

and you mentioned like the magazine and it's translated even if those blurbs that might mention the articles each month that are about scamming if you could share because I know Councilor Flynn has staff in his office that would translate it in Cantonese and Other ways to get it to different community members.

Yeah, for sure. And we can make sure. I don't actually know if you all are on our... So our magazine, we print 15,000 copies, but we also have an email. We send it out through email so we can make sure that you're getting kind of our emails and our... We do put a different SCAM in each issue. Flynn, Sophia writes them. So she writes a different one each month.

She's excellent.

You touched a little bit on the impact, but how much do we think and then how much do you believe is underreported?

I think a lot is underreported. I mean, I understand people probably embarrassed that they fall for a scam. We try to tell people, like we said earlier, community comms, that's a community meetings that we go to. I understand you might feel embarrassed, but we need to hear what's going on so we can properly track it. Or it might be a new scam we haven't seen that someone got. and Card in the middle of. So, I mean, I think, like I said last year, 7.2 million is a relatively small number, I guarantee.

Like the one that kind of went viral last year was the text messages for like the Mass Pike tolls. And I mean, they were only asking, say, for like $2, but can you just kind of share You would share your bank. They were probably getting your bank information and taking way more than that. Is that true?

Oh, absolutely. That's just the stock of a scam. Like you said, you might... You know, like you said, the easy pass. Oh, you owe $10.99 or whatever. But I guarantee you that's not all that's going to be taken out if you reply to the scam.

Okay. Yeah, just so people understand that too, that Now you have to be on heightened alert because you just shared your bank information and they're going to now compromise you. Okay, that's all for right now. I do want to, I know we have Paul White here. If you could come to the microphone. You have two minutes. You need a little bit more, but thank you for coming and sharing your story. And when Reverend Culpepper said you were his grandson's piano teacher, and when you walked in, I said, I know you play the organ for... Yeah, Miss Shirley, so thank you for being here. I'm like, wait, I know that. I know him. Thank you.

Well, thank you so much. I would like to, and I would like to thank Councilor Culpepper for notifying me. of this hearing because it's very close to me and what I'm going through right now. I am a victim of fraud. What happened is that someone, someway, somehow, accessed my Social Security information, everything they would need to open up a credit card, and they opened up a Discover card. and they went to a place in Downtown Crossing and the name of the place was Tea Luxury and they purchased $10,000 worth of jewelry. And I didn't know this until Discover started calling me. And so, I only have two minutes, so what I'm saying, what I'm trying to say is that

It's very difficult because I had a 760 score, credit score. And because of this, my score is like down in the 600s. and so and I called I did all the due diligence I contacted the credit reporting agencies I put in the The problems with my credit score, the FICO score, I also contacted the Attorney General's Office. I contacted, I can't because I'm kind of nervous, but I contacted Discover, and I had many conversations with Discover, and Discover just responded to me by saying to me, No, we don't believe this is fraud.

So I would have conversations with them, they'd reopen the case, and they would send me back some kind of response saying that, We don't think this is fraud. So what is happening now is that I am getting ready to apply for some credit and I will probably probably I might be denied because of my FICO score because what has happened is that this happened in April of 2025 and this is still going on and they're billing me I'm just here to let the council know that I am going through this and I did not go to T-Luxury. I am not a jewelry person. I'm not interested in $10,000 worth of jewelry.

So I don't know if I can get any kind of assistance or help because I'd just like to finish this because I only have two minutes. is that what I don't understand is why hasn't anyone gone to Tea Luxury? and try to at least look and see because they take pictures of these transactions. And no one has done anything to investigate how that expenditure was done. And so I feel like I'm sort of crying out in the wilderness, but I have that on my record at $10,000. I'm just bringing it to everyone's attention. And thank you very much.

Thank you. Jerry, did you want to respond?

I'm sorry, the only question. Was there a police report made, sir?

Oh, the police report, I'm glad you asked that question, and the reason why is because I did fill a police report out. and I can get that to you. The problem with the police report is I brought in a police, I brought in sort of the description of the fraud and the police report was nothing like what I brought in. and so it doesn't have the same emphasis on the fraud that I had brought in. So I just wanted to let, I'm glad you asked that. We can talk after. If you could talk after, that'd be great. Most definitely. I was gonna ask if you wouldn't mind.

Thank you. So if you can wait till the hearing ends, they'll... Yes. Thank you, perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you. Of course, thank you. Council Flynn, do you have a round?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I don't necessarily have any questions. I just want to say thank you to the administration panel that is here for the important work that they have done. Obviously, this is a major issue and it's important that we Work together, continue to educate residents across the city. Maybe let me just ask Jerry one question. Jerry, if someone calls you up on the phone and says, for whatever reason, you owe money or has to send money, but are you... Does a business do that through the phone, telling you you're at a business, you're at some other place, that you owe $1,000? Is that how they communicate with you?

I mean, you'd think you might get a letter as well, but the one thing I'd always do, if someone calls on the phone and say, I'm the bank, I think we had a discussion earlier, I'm the credit union, you're You owe this bill on your Visa card or something like that. I'd always say, OK, I'm going to call my bank back and make sure this is real. Just so you have every right to do that. You don't have to do it right then. I'm going to make sure this is real. I'm going to call the bank. You probably have the number to your credit union or whatever or business. I think that's the best thing to do, to double check and make sure.

You don't necessarily have to go through your credit card. You can go right through your credit union itself.

A lot of times, if your credit card's through your credit union or something like that, yeah, you can call your credit union and make sure and see what it is. They probably have a balance for you.

Okay, that's excellent information. No, I just want to say thank you to the police, to the licensing board, to the Aid Strong Commission for the important work you're doing and that you're going to continue to do and you're really helping. A lot of people in need, so I just want to say thank you on behalf of the residents of Boston.

Thank you, Madam Chair. and Elder. This is a significant issue that I think folks kind of gloss over. And sometimes elders are losing all they have in the bank. and that they'll never get back. And so I just thank you for coming today. And here's my final question. What could we do as lawmakers to help strengthen the law?

What can we do? I mean, I think getting the message out as elected officials is the biggest thing. Unfortunately, scammers are just going to get, you might make some sort, not saying it wouldn't affect it, Make some ordinance or things like that. Scampers are not going to be stopped. That's the biggest thing. There's too much money involved. People making a lot of money off this. Education is the biggest thing that we, you know, our elders or anybody in the city or anywhere are aware that these scammers are happening. I've had family members call me asking me, hey, I just got a call saying it's the IRS and they want me to give $50,000 over the phone. which would never happen like I said what should I do I'm scared I'm scared or or I they save a warrant for jury duty which the police are never gonna call you and say hey you're gonna warrant for jury duty unless you paid $100, you're going to get it off. So education is the biggest thing that we send out. If you have any inkling that something's not right, don't do it.

in the future if it's legit you can you can make up for that but if you on the phone or a piece of paper gets sent to your house you don't feel it's right don't do it that's the biggest thing we can say.

Thank you. Thank you for being here. Just one thing to kind of uplift is it takes a lot of time and resources, many residents and people of Assume that, you know, the Boston Police, Age Strong, the Licensing Board are just doing other things, right, like different types of crime, and it just seems like at the ComStat meetings and other concerns we hear at community meetings about our seniors, it's kind of, Thank you. Thank you. This crime that like you said it's only going to get worse and harder to detect and as you know AI and other technology continues we have to stay ahead of it so we as a city have to stay Thank you always for being here.

Thank you for following up with residents who come into the chamber with concerns. With that being said, hearing on docket 0283 is adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you.