Marin authorities, banks collaborate to protect seniors

Two Marin County law enforcement agencies and two banks have launched a program to protect elders from being scammed into giving away their money.

“We’re trying to find a way to stop the bleed from these cases that we know are happening often in Marin,” District Attorney Lori Frugoli said.

In a common tactic, scammers contact elderly victims to warn them they risk being arrested or having their bank accounts compromised by hackers unless they transfer their money to someone else. The scammers then arrange to have couriers visit the victims at their homes to collect the money.

The new pilot program, which will run for two months, involves the Marin County District Attorney’s Office, the San Rafael Police Department, Bank of Marin and Westamerica Bank.

“The goal is to help educate individuals before they become victims of fraud by gently raising awareness and encouraging them to pause and reassess the situation,” San Rafael police Lt. Scott Eberle said.

Organizers chose San Rafael for the program because it has the county’s highest concentration of banks, said Mark Reischel, an investigator with the district attorney’s office. More cities and towns are under consideration for the future.

“We’re doing our test run to see how it goes, what we can do better, or if it’s working the way it is, and then try to move this to every other jurisdiction,” Reischel said.

Brandi Campbell, a Bank of Marin executive, said the program was an “easy yes” for her company to join. She said the staff has been strengthening fraud prevention efforts for years.

“It’s another voice, but it’s a powerful one when it’s coming from the San Rafael Police Department and the Marin DA’s office,” Campbell said. “It only strengthens what we’re saying.”

The banks will focus on elderly customers who request to withdraw unusually large amounts of cash. Tellers will hand cards to the potential victims that ask if they had recently been contacted by a stranger and directed to give money to someone else. If so, the customer is advised to contact San Rafael police.

Campbell said bank employees are also in a position to raise concerns if they know the person’s banking history. She said unusual requests include cases when a customer wants a large cash withdrawal in smaller denominations, or when they mention gift cards, a popular way for fraudsters to get money.

Eberle said police can directly speak with customers and help them determine if their situation might be a scam.

“This proactive approach allows us to intervene early and help protect members of our community from financial harm,” he said.

Reischel said there was a recent case at a participating bank in which a customer attempted to withdraw $7,000.

“The lady came in and had all of the red flags of a potential scam,” he said.

Reischel said a teller handed her the warning card about potential fraud. The customer still withdrew the money, but she returned it to her bank account the next day after reconsidering.

The fraud prevention program was created at the end of a year in which scammers targeted elderly Marin residents in several cases.

In November, callers contacted four elderly Novato residents, claimed to be police employees or debt collectors and instructed them to withdraw cash for couriers to collect at their homes. The victims lost $24,000 combined, Novato police reported.

In May, Marin County sheriff’s detectives arrested a Torrance resident accused of being involved in scams that targeted Marin elders, including a case in which an 83-year-old Tiburon woman lost $45,000 after being misled by a suspect portraying an Amazon employee.

“I’ve been hearing at our chiefs’ meetings that it’s been happening all over the county,” Frugoli said about the scams.

Frugoli also mentioned cases in which scammers hired rideshare drivers as unwitting accomplices, sending them to collect the money at victims’ homes. She said her staff is communicating with rideshare companies to raise awareness of the scams.

A 2023 study by AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, found that victims 60 or older lose an estimated $28.3 billion every year to financial exploitation. More than 35% of Marin County’s population is expected to be 60 or older by 2030, the district attorney’s office said.

Frugoli noted that many elders have equity in their homes and might have access to a high amount of cash.

Reischel said the new financial protection program is not based on other programs.

“We tried to create a solution to a problem we were seeing,” he said. “We’d be excited if we were able to make something we can share with other counties and/or jurisdictions.”