AARP’s Fraud Fighters See the True Cost of Scams Every Day

Dan Smith, 74, a soft-spoken retired lawyer, is on the phone at the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline (877-908-3360) office in Denver on a recent Tuesday morning, speaking with Becky, who tells him she lost $16,000 in a PayPal impostor scam. She doesn’t know what to do next — and doesn’t want her husband to find out.

​“I’m sick to my stomach,” she says, explaining how it began with an email about a suspicious charge; to dispute it, she was told, she needed to fill out an online form. When she did, the scammers were able take over her computer. “Stupid me, thinking people are honest.”

Smith reassures her that she is most certainly not stupid and, sadly, not alone. “This scam is distressingly common.… I am truly sorry this is happening to you.” He goes on to explain how to protect herself from further loss — including getting her computer cleared of malware and requesting a new bank account number and password. “Call us anytime,” he adds, before their 15-minute call ends.

Smith is a longtime volunteer for the free AARP helpline, one of the largest operations of its kind in America. It’s staffed with volunteers who listen to victims’ stories, help them report crimes, find financial or psychological counseling, and more.

Along with regulars like Smith who come to the downtown Denver headquarters, there are more than 160 volunteers around the country who do the work remotely. Led by Amy Nofziger, AARP’s director of fraud victim support, the team responds to about 150 calls each day. All are first screened by a trained triage team, which passes to the helpline volunteers the callers needing urgent help.

The helpline team is housed in a nondescript downtown building, where volunteers set up in individual offices. Sometimes they’ll poke their heads out to get advice from a fellow volunteer or Nofziger — who keeps in her office a blue stuffed llama, available for hugs when anyone gets overwhelmed by a tragic story.

On a recent day, Smith’s laptop screen was open to a list of scam victims needing callbacks.

“The hardest calls are the ones where someone lost everything,” he says. That is not uncommon.

The AARP fraud helpline has operated for a decade, thanks to people willing to give their time. No specific background is needed to volunteer, though many have had careers in law enforcement. All receive at least 20 hours of training before handling calls.