NCJ Number
178443
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Dated: January 1999 Pages: 77-80
Date Published
1999
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ontario, Canada, Provincial Police team established Project Phonebusters in 1993 as a national task force to address perpetrators of telemarketing fraud directed largely against elderly persons through scams involving charities, prizes, medical care, home repairs, and insurance/financial products.
Abstract
The project's goals are to prosecute central individuals and companies and to educate the public. Education has resulted in a decrease in fraud complaints received over the last 3 years, as well as a reduction in the number of complainants who were victimized and a smaller amount of lost money. Project Phonebusters assists community policing programs by providing advice and offering print and video materials. The unit offers a 24-hour toll-free telephone line. Volunteers over the age of 50 have been trained to handle the follow-up to victims who have reported telephone fraud. Forty-five volunteers each work short shifts twice or more weekly. The project unit has collected extensive information about people who victimize senior citizens; its file includes 656 companies and individuals suspected of scamming people in Canada and the United States. Photograph