By Carol Lawrence for The Los Angeles Times
It happened twice to Little Falls, N.J. senior Joe Galczynski: home improvement contractors showing up at his door offering to work on his house — for suspiciously high prices, paid in cash.
And to Marie Bino, a senior from Wayne, N.J., who got a call from someone wanting the last four digits of her Social Security number.
Then there are Fairfield, N.J., seniors Arthur and Grace Strodthoff. After donating their Chrysler to a children’s non-profit they thought would sell the car and use the money for the kids, the couple learned the car was instead collecting parking tickets on a Newark, N.J., street — four years later.
“We were thinking we were giving it for good use and it probably never got there,” said Arthur. “Somebody must have scammed it (the car) for themselves. Nowadays, you can’t do anything.”
Easing such confusion was the aim of a con-game boot camp last week put on by a state Division of Consumer Affairs team called the Senior Fraud Education and Protection program, or FedUp.
