JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s Lieutenant Governor is launching a new initiative that aims to protect seniors from scams.
Florida is home to more seniors than almost any other state, and senior scams are claiming more victims and more dollars every year.
Americans over the age of 60 lost nearly $5 billion to scams in 2024, representing a 43% loss increase over the year prior.
“I believe it’s $700 million-a-year, $800 million-a-year is lost every year in the State of Florida to senior citizens alone,” Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins said.
Collins is gearing up the state to fight back through education and enforcement.
The initiative, dubbed Senior Shield, will allow Florida residents to sign up to receive text and email alerts informing them about new scams as they pop up.
“We’re gonna make you hard targets. You have to have the information to understand what’s going on. When a new threat appears, Floridians will know about before the scammers get to their door, inbox, or their phone,” Collins said.
The plan also involves the creation of a task force that will aim to hold the scammer accountable.
It will be made up of law enforcement, senior citizens, state agencies like the Department of Elder Affairs, and even ethical hackers.
One of those ethical hackers, who goes by the pseudonym Pierogi, takes the fight directly to scammers on his YouTube channel by hacking scammers and exposing them online.
“And it’s led to tens of millions of people’s bank accounts being saved,” Pierogi said during the Senior Sheid announcement.
He said he’s been pushing for an effort like Senior Shield for years.
“From a government standpoint, from a technology standpoint, from a banking standpoint, like, there’s some responsibility that we have to take here,” said Pierogi.
Because many scammers are overseas, Collins said the effort to hold them accountable will be an all-hands-on-deck effort and a learning experience.
“But ultimately I want them to know we’re taking a stand along with them to make sure those people are found and apprehended anyway we can within the legal construction of our government,” Collins said.
You can learn more about the new initiative here.
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