{"id":20929,"date":"2025-03-20T11:09:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/?post_type=wfsu-news&#038;p=20929"},"modified":"2025-03-20T11:41:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:41:33","slug":"a-florida-proposal-provides-a-new-way-to-go-after-financial-scammers","status":"publish","type":"wfsu-news","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-florida-proposal-provides-a-new-way-to-go-after-financial-scammers\/","title":{"rendered":"A Florida proposal provides a new way to go after financial scammers"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-20929-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/03\/so-scams-sega.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/03\/so-scams-sega.mp3\">https:\/\/cpa.ds.npr.org\/s390\/audio\/2025\/03\/so-scams-sega.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Scams are a problem everywhere. All ages are at risk, but the elderly are especially vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I talked to the other attorneys in my firm, and all of us have at least one person who is actively being scammed at this point,&#8221; says attorney Jana McConnaughhay of Waldoch &amp; McConnaughhay in Tallahassee. She is board certified in Elder Law.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The woman that I&#8217;m working with right now is in her 80s, maybe has a touch of memory issues,&#8221; McConnaughhay says. &#8220;She&#8217;s running all around every day trying to shut down accounts, not fully understanding what&#8217;s happening. (She&#8217;s) recently widowed. I mean, it&#8217;s just as vulnerable as you can get of a person whose life is being made into a total hell.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Annie Gaynor of Tallahassee has been helping a friend who was exploited. Gaynor says the friend, who we&#8217;re not naming, is isolated and may be having memory problems. She was embarrassed about the situation and not eager to talk about it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am healthcare and legal advocate for this person, so I was able to speak to her, but even then, she wanted to hide it from me,&#8221; Gaynor says. &#8220;She was a little bit unsure and maybe a little embarrassed that she might be involved in something over her head&#8230; These people are so persuasive that you don&#8217;t know that it&#8217;s not a friendly approach. They really faked her out, and she is a smart, savvy, incredible human being.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would make it easier to go after scammers via the means by which they contacted their victims.<\/p>\n<p>Twyla Sketchley was behind some of the legislation to help victims go after their scammers. She&#8217;s a Board Certified Elder Law Attorney with The Sketchley Law Firm in Tallahassee. (Disclosure: The firm is an underwriter of WFSU Public Media.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not just seniors. Everybody can be scammed,&#8221; Sketchley says. &#8220;A lot of our senior victims of this, they&#8217;re embarrassed. They don&#8217;t want to tell their children, their neighbors, their pastors, that they&#8217;ve been scammed. So that prevents the reporting, and that leaves them even more vulnerable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We talk about common scams \u2014 Sunpass toll violations, grandparents needing to quickly help grandkids, arrest warrants, social media romances, and more \u2014 on <i>Speaking Of<\/i>. We even hear Sketchley&#8217;s personal experience with a phone scammer. Click LISTEN above to hear the full segment. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2025 WFSU<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":20930,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[],"tags":[1136,1135],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Florida proposal provides a new way to go after financial scammers - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/wfsu-news\/a-florida-proposal-provides-a-new-way-to-go-after-financial-scammers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Florida proposal provides a new way to go after financial scammers - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scams abound. 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