Fairfax County leaders are hoping for a more coordinated, regional approach to helping seniors avoid scams.
“It needs to be broader than just a county message,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said at an Older Adults Committee meeting on Tuesday (June 3).
At the meeting, the supervisors were briefed on the county’s ongoing Silver Shield campaign, which launched in 2017 to address fraud targeting vulnerable seniors.
“Our work is a labor of love,” said Melissa Smarr, a code specialist for Fairfax County Land Development Services who is the public face of the effort.
Since its inception, the initiative has connected with more than 60,000 local residents at about 160 events, according to county staff.
“We have been to senior centers, libraries, community centers,” Smarr said, listing retirement facilities, condominiums, non-profit organizations and religious organizations among the groups that have benefited from the outreach.
A graphic presented at the committee meeting showed about two dozen different types of scams perpetrated on seniors and the broader community, from texts claiming they have delinquent taxes, missed jury duty or outstanding warrants to calls purporting to be from “grandchildren” who are in legal or financial distress.
“Older adults are particularly vulnerable,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, who chairs the older-adults committee.
He said it is difficult to determine how many people are being victimized.
“The shame involved … keeps a lot of folks from telling anyone about it,” Alcorn said.
Data from the county’s Financial Exploitation Task Force gives an idea of the scale. In fiscal year 2024, the task force worked on cases involving nearly 160 victims who collectively lost $19 million, said Teebe Negasi, assistant director of the adult and aging division in the county’s Department of Family Services.
Only about 20% of those losses were recovered.
“Clearly we have more work to do,” Negasi said.
Jason Kratovil, who chairs the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission, said a lack of coordinated messaging, from the local level to nationally, makes it harder to fend off scammers.
“Everybody wants to do something, [but] no one’s exactly singing from the same hymnal,” Kratovil said.
McKay said messaging needs to be consistent, at least in the D.C. region and hopefully statewide.
“Ideally, it would be a national one,” he said of a common messaging theme.
Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk agreed to raise the issue with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), which he currently chairs.
“We will look into this. I’m committed to take this on,” he said.
“It’s outrageous,” Lusk said of scamming seniors. “It just makes my stomach turn.”
Fairfax County Police Department Capt. Richard Cash said everyone, from youth to seniors, needs a basic understanding of scams, how to respond to them and where to report them when victimized.
His advice to the public? When put in a position where fraud is suspected, “take a moment, pause, reflect on what’s going on,” Cash said.
