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New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer has announced new legislation aimed at protecting seniors from scams. The proposed laws target scams that often exploit older people on social media platforms, such as investment and tax scams.
Gottheimer is urging social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to employ tools like artificial intelligence to identify and label fraudulent content and accounts. The congressman is also sponsoring a bill to help states increase staffing and invest in advanced technology for their scam enforcement offices.
In addition, Gottheimer is co-leading an initiative to designate May 9 as National Scam Survivor Day. This comes in response to an FBI report indicating that seniors were scammed out of more than $3.4 billion last year.
"Millions of seniors across the country, including my own mother, have been the victims of financial scams, and far too many have been cheated out of their retirement savings," said Gottheimer, a member of the House Financial Services Committee.
The proposed legislation is part of Gottheimer's Senior Security Strategy, which aims to end financial scams targeting seniors. The strategy includes the creation of a federal Senior Investor Task Force within the Securities and Exchange Commission to strengthen protections for senior investors.