Senior citizens, who are often the targets of fraud and consumer rip-offs, now have an opportunity to join my Office's efforts to prevent and prosecute these crimes.

This fall, I will host a series of Senior Anti-Crime Universities, designed to teach attendees to detect scams against seniors and help others avoid frauds and abuse. These classes will present a wealth of information to identify and prevent schemes and rip-offs.

Each University session will offer a half-day of classes on how to spot and combat consumer fraud and scams, identity theft, Medicare/Medicaid fraud, financial exploitation, elder abuse and neglect, Internet crimes and charitable giving misrepresentations. Local police will also teach a course in personal safety.

The first Senior Anti-Crime University will be held Sept. 29 at Friendship Village in Tempe. Others will be held Oct. 15 at the Beatitudes in Phoenix; Oct. 27 at Prescott College in Prescott and Nov. 20 at Pima Community College in Tucson.  More Senior Anti-Crime Universities are being planned around our state in 2010.

These Senior Anti-Crime Universities are free to the public, but space is limited so advance registration is required.  To register online or get more information, go to the SENIORS tab at the Attorney General's Web site: www.azag.gov or email SeniorSleuths@azag.gov.

The Senior Anti-Crime University is affiliated with a new project in my Office we're calling Senior Sleuths. In this program, senior volunteers will be trained to identify and report fraud and use their knowledge to educate other seniors.

Investigations by Senior Sleuths will include collecting suspicious “junk” mail, keeping logs of telemarketing phone calls received at home, and attending “free” presentations to hear the sponsor pitch and submit reports about them to the Attorney General's Office.

Senior Sleuths may also answer calls on the AG Elder Help line, work in the Attorney General’s satellite offices, provide consumer assistance at AG booths at community events or make presentations to community groups.

The Senior Anti-Crime University and Senior Sleuths project are partnership efforts with AARP, DES Division of Aging & Adult Services, SMP (Senior Medicare Patrol), Arizona Area Agencies on Aging, Duet: Partners in Health & Aging, All Arizona School Retiree Association, local police departments and other retiree and senior organizations.

Protecting senior citizens has long been a top priority for the Attorney General's Office. These two new programs promise to make life much harder for fraud artists who take aim at Arizona seniors and give a lot of satisfaction to our civic-minded Senior Sleuths.

Terry Goddard