ORO VALLEY, AZ (KOLD) - Police in Oro Valley are helping seniors fight back against crimes and scams that target the elderly population.
The police department has teamed up with the Arizona Attorney General's office to launch the Taskforce Against Senior Abuse (T.A.S.A.).
The effort is housed out of a substation, located at 1171 E. Rancho Vistoso Boulevard, Suite #115. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. The phone number is (520) 229-5080.
Police in the area say they've seen too many scams targeting seniors, including foreclosure fraud, identity theft, and the so-called Canadian lottery scam.
"That's where they'll say, 'you've won the Canadian lottery, and to get the money, you have to pay the taxes up front, so you need to wire us $5,000,'" Lt. Kara Riley explained. "We deal with those kinds of frauds here quite a bit."
Lt. Riley hopes this new effort will encourage more seniors to report such crimes, and help combat the trend.
"We do find that some victims have a tendency to be embarrassed over some of the incidents that have occurred, so they don't really want to contact the police," she said. "So we wanted to give them another outlet here. This is just a store-front type of environment where they can come in, and we welcome them to any kind of assistance that we can provide."
Oro Valley police have a detective who is specifically assigned to investigate senior issues, and the substation houses more than 80 volunteers involved in the new effort. The Arizona attorney general's office plans to further investigate claims filed here.
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