How AARP's Fraud Watch Network Helpline Is Fighting for You

Margaret Locke, 61

Denver lawyer

Photo by: THEO STROOMER

“Oftentimes the first call a victim is making is to AARP,” says Locke, who’s been volunteering for the helpline for almost five years. “They haven’t told anyone. They haven’t told a spouse. They haven’t told their kids. They are alone and scared. And so that’s when they reach out to us.”​

Giancarlo Berrocal, 35

Bank risk manager and certified fraud ­examiner in Boca Raton, Florida

Photo by: Bryan Cereijo

Berrocal is bilingual and often takes calls from ­Spanish-speaking victims, many of whom have reported losing money in crypto­currency investment scams. “Crypto is just huge across the board in terms of being a way to scam people,” he says. So are tech support scams, he adds, recalling a woman he spoke with who had lost more than $1 million — "all her savings and 401k retirement money" to one such scammer.

Alfred and Natalie Mason, 83 and 82

Retirees in Darrow, Louisiana

Courtesy ALFRED MASON

The couple started out several years ago as volunteers in AARP’s Louisiana State Office, where their duties included teaching people about fraud at information sessions around town. Working on the Helpline was a natural next step for the pair, who’ve been married for 65 years. They typically each volunteer for about two hours a week, with one taking notes as the other speaks with callers.

Natalie says the most heartbreaking stories come from victims of romance scams. She recalls one woman who had fallen in love and given everything she owned to an online impostor: “She had sold her home, sold her car, all of her income was gone and she did not know where she was going to sleep that night.” She assisted the caller with reporting the crime and gave her something that can be even more important: empathy.

In some cases, says Alfred, “you’re just the person that they cry to, and the person they can vent to as well.”

David Brown, 60

Photo by: LAUREN JUSTICE

Staff attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles

Brown has seen multimillion-dollar losses from ­securities fraud throughout his career but has found himself particularly moved by helpline victims’ reports of puppy scams— in which criminals advertise pups for sale, then disappear once they have your money. “How could scammers prey upon and victimize people when all they want to do is love a furry, four-legged creature?”

If you are interested in volunteering, call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at (877) 908-3360 or email AARPFraudWatchHelpline@aarp.org for more information.