PORTLAND, Maine, June 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FairPoint Communications and York County Sheriff Bill King applaud the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for passing S.1490, the Seniors Fraud Prevention Act of 2015, yesterday. The bill, introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D, MN) and Susan Collins (R, Maine), now moves to the full senate.
“Senior citizens all across the country, but especially those in New England, have had their personal life savings and trust stolen by cowardly criminals who prey on our elderly through a complex system of phone scams that often originate outside the U.S.,” said Sheriff King, who has previously testified before the Senate Select Committee on Aging on the magnitude of scams against seniors, such as the Jamaican Lottery Scam.
The Jamaican Lottery Scam, also known as a Sweepstakes Scam, begins with a phone call to the senior informing the recipient they have “won a prize,” but in order to claim the prize, the scammer pressures the senior to pay a fee “to cover the prize’s taxes or associated costs.”
FairPoint and Sheriff King have worked closely with our elected leaders in Washington to take steps to address this issue by increasing public awareness. With yesterday’s action, the Senate Committee has taken an important step towards ensuring our elderly are protected from illegal phone scams.
“Far too many older Mainers are being financially ruined by strangers over the telephone,” said Mike Reed, Maine state president for FairPoint. “FairPoint will continue to be an ardent supporter of Senator Collins in her efforts to protect our seniors. We are especially pleased that this has received bipartisan support.”
S. 1490 will establish an advisory office within the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The Bureau will monitor fraudulent activities conducted through the mail, television, Internet, telemarketing, and recorded message telephone calls that target senior citizens. The Bureau will also work with local law enforcement and the families or caregivers of seniors to report fraudulent activity through the Consumer Sentinel Network, a database that federal, state, and local law enforcement can use to track such activity.
FairPoint and York County Sheriff King would personally like to thank Senators Collins, Ayotte, Shaheen, Klobuchar, McCaskill and Schatz for their work on protecting our senior citizens and now call on the full Senate to pass S. 1490.
About FairPoint Communications, Inc. FairPoint Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:FRP) provides advanced data, voice and video technologies to single and multi-site businesses, public and private institutions, consumers, wireless companies and wholesale re-sellers in 17 states. Leveraging an owned, fiber-core Ethernet network — with more than 20,000 route miles of fiber, including approximately 17,000 route miles of fiber in northern New England — FairPoint has the network coverage, scalable bandwidth and transport capacity to support enhanced applications, including the next generation of mobile and cloud-based communications, such as small cell wireless backhaul technology, voice over IP, data center colocation services, managed services and disaster recovery. For more information, visit www.FairPoint.com.