BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON -- A new Butler County program aims to prevent one of the nation's most underreported crimes: consumer fraud scams that prey on senior citizens.
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Information
An informational session is set for 10 a.m. to noon today 3at the senior center in Middletown, 140 N. Verity Parkway.
Other sessions have already been held at the senior center in Hamilton, 140 Ross Ave., and at the center in Oxford, 922 Tollgate Drive.
Information: Detective Sgt. Craft, 785-5141.
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The sheriff's office and local seniors' groups are banding together to create the Senior Consumer Clearinghouse, a collection of data about other seniors' experiences with contractors or vendors, ranging from home health-care providers to plumbers.
Senior citizens constitute about 10 percent of the county's population; as of the 1990 census, nearly 30,000 people were 65 or older in Butler County.
Officials don't know how many of those seniors have been consumer fraud victims because surveys show up to 80 percent of seniors fail to report scams, said Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Mike Craft. The reasons: Seniors fear retaliation, don't know to whom they should report the offense or are reluctant to "impose" their concerns on police, he said.
The clearinghouse program will not evaluate information. Rather, the program will merely compile and maintain comments that senior citizens provide.
The original comment forms, which include the reporting person's name, will be kept on file at the sheriff's office; copies of the forms, which keep the citizens' names confidential, will be kept at the county's three senior centers. Contractors may inspect the reports and attach responses.
