Accessibility menu
State Representative Joe Atkins
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4192
For more information contact: Ted Modrich 651-296-5809
Column/LTE
Who Said Democrats and Republicans Can’t Work Together?
Last week, the House Commerce Committee unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to help protect Minnesotans from sophisticated telephone and online scams. These scams, many of which have ties to organized crime both here in the United States and in Eastern Europe, are primarily targeted at seniors and vulnerable adults. This is why the legislation is a top priority of AARP.
As the chief author of this legislation, I have been impressed with the level of support for this proposal on both sides of the partisan aisle.
Working with both Democrats and Republicans, business groups and consumer protection advocates, as well as law enforcement agencies, we have crafted legislation that has garnered wide bipartisan support.
It is no wonder this legislation is gaining momentum. The facts speak for themselves.
In the last year alone, over 100,000 Minnesotans have been ripped off in sophisticated online and telephone scams, to the tune of over $5 million in losses. Within just the last month, one elderly woman in western Minnesota was unwittingly scammed out of over $250,000. Last year, an Inver Grove Heights man had over $10,000 swindled from him.
These are just the claims we know about. Law enforcement officials confirm these are some of the most underreported crimes in our state, as victims of these scams tend to either be embarrassed or are elderly individuals who are fearful their families will no longer allow them to handle their own finances.
Even worse, some victims are blackmailed by their scammers into sending even more money, based on threats that their family members will be contacted and told of what the victim has done.
A great deal of credit for this legislation and for the bipartisan support it has gained goes to Jim Arlt, senior agent with the Department of Public Safety. Arlt, you may remember, traveled to Jamaica with Don Shelby of WCCO and, together with local law enforcement, busted a number of scam artists who were targeting Minnesota victims.
In testifying before the House Commerce Committee, Arlt emphasized the level of complexity and growing sophistication of these online and telephone scams. They are not just an email from Nigeria saying a long lost, rich uncle has died and left you a million dollars. Nor are they just sweepstakes scams.
Rather, as Agent Arlt attested, many of these scams are built over many months, luring unsuspecting would-be victims into thinking they are simply in an online relationship with someone working in Milwaukee or a soldier stationed in Savannah or San Diego. They don’t realize they are really dealing with a scam artist half a world away.
Working cooperatively with money transfer companies like MoneyGram and Western Union, which is the method of choice for scammers, the legislation calls for additional training for employees, fraud prevention efforts and steps that will help prevent money from going where it is not intended. Many victims fail to realize that when they wire money, even though it is intended for one place, it can be picked up somewhere else. For example, until efforts were started to crack down on these frauds, money that a victim thought was wired to Lincoln, Nebraska could be picked up in Lagos, Nigeria, and the victim would never even be told.
The next step for this legislation is a full vote of the Minnesota House.
I’m hopeful this legislation will follow the course of other bipartisan efforts I have led, including advances in Minnesota’s fire safety laws, a new law that led to an 80 percent drop in meth labs, and retirement fund protections. With compelling facts, a cogent argument, and a willingness to work across the partisan aisle, Democrats and Republicans really can come together to get good things done.
News Items
- Governor Dayton Signs Nurse Staffing Disclosure and Study Legislation - (Posted: May 10 2013 4:37PM)
- Minnesota House Passes Conference Committee Report on Bill Banning BPA in Children’s Food Containers - (Posted: May 10 2013 4:37PM)
- Governor Dayton Signs New Law Aimed at Protecting Minnesota Seniors from Wire Transfer Fraud - (Posted: May 10 2013 3:19PM)
- Archived News Items
- Subscribe to RSS News Feeds
- Read more about RSS.