Updated at 11:30 a.m. Monday: This story has been updated to reflect that the bill has now passed the Senate and, pending House adoption of amendments, is headed to Gov. Jared Polis for consideration.
Debbie Fox, a retiree in Arvada, had met some liars on dating apps before.
She thought her defenses were sharp, and she was on the lookout for anything that seemed too good to be true. So when Fox felt a connection with one of her matches, she Googled the man and verified his business filings. She spoke with him regularly for weeks, both on the phone and on video. He showed her his passport.
And then he stole $58,000 from her.
“I was devastated,” Fox said. “My body collapsed to the floor. I couldn’t comprehend this amount of harm that was done to me.”
Fox, who was robbed in 2023, has since become an advocate for stronger protections against fraud — including those proposed in one measure, , that is now moving through the Colorado legislature. That bill would give banks the power to delay certain suspicious transactions made by people who are 70 or older.
A pause like that, Fox says now, would have given her the chance to snap out of the emotional manipulation and would have stopped her victimization in its tracks.
The bipartisan bill has already cleared the House and was unanimously approved by the Senate on Monday. A spokesperson for Gov. Jared Polis says the governor will review the final version when it reaches his desk.
In addition to the delay on transactions, the bill would also require bank employees who handle financial transactions or approve loans to report potential financial exploitation to law enforcement or relevant county agencies. The measure builds off a that requires financial advisers to report possible financial abuse of vulnerable adults.
“Elder abuse is prevalent, and it can be physical or it can be financial,” said Sen. Jessie Danielson, a Wheat Ridge Democrat and sponsor of the bill. “Unfortunately, it is often financial.”
found that $3.4 billion was stolen through fraud targeting older people in 2023. The FBI reported more than 100,000 complaints from people older than 60 that year — with Colorado ranking No. 8 in the nation for the number of complaints made, at 2,905.
But the Federal Trade Commission the total value of such fraud may be as high as $61.5 billion, since only a fraction is reported.
“All of these types of scams have one simple solution. And that is delay, delay, delay,” Allan Gordon, an advocate with AARP, testified at a committee hearing on the bill.
In Fox’s case, she said she was “trauma-bonded” by a man who spent weeks trying to find her weakness. A story about an urgent need for short-term loans to keep his business afloat in the fallout of Middle East conflicts cracked her.
Fox still recalls the line that broke her defenses: “Are you telling me you’re in a position to help me, but you won’t?”
She reviewed bank statements and even signed a loan agreement with a person who claimed to be an attorney before making two wire transfers from her retirement account, totaling $58,000.
A third request for money snapped her out of the haze.
She reported the theft, and the money was eventually traced to South Africa — presumably part of an international crime ring. Adding insult to injury, she also had to pay taxes on the withdrawals.
Now, she suspects the thieves would have tried to get her to mortgage her home and take her for all she had. She also believes, she said, that a quick conversation with her bank teller — or some other slowdown to stop her earlier in the process — would have nipped the fraud in the bud.
“If (my bank teller) had been aware and astute enough, they could have pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, these scams are happening’ — and that probably would have worked with me,” Fox said. “My flags were already up, but I was a nervous Nelly.”
Fox would like to see a federal law passed allowing such delays, but said she was grateful state lawmakers were taking action. She would also like to see the state proposal expanded to include more than just older adults. Some fraudsters may target vulnerable older people, she said, but plenty of schemes go after younger people, too.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Sean Camacho, a Denver Democrat; Rep. Jamie Jackson, an Aurora Democrat; and Sen. Marc Catlin, a Montrose Republican.
Camacho said he’d be open to such expansions in future years. This year, backers opted for a narrow step-by-step approach to weigh the effects of the legislation.
“The stories are absolutely heartbreaking,” Camacho said. “Because you have someone who’s worked their entire life to build a retirement, to take care of themselves, and then in one instant, some fraudster just comes and takes that all away from them.”
