Agency Tries to Help Seniors Avoid Sting of Scam Artists

Anton Anstett is broke.

He envisioned spending part of his golden years on a cruise ship bound for some tropical paradise. But after scrimping and saving for 32 years, he says, his $260,000 nest egg vanished in what law enforcement officials allege was a Placentia company’s investment scam.

Now, the 68-year-old retired financial manager from Anaheim is answering help-wanted ads.

“When I have my quiet time, I sit and cry sometimes because I can’t believe I let this happen,” he said.

Increasing numbers of such seniors in Southern California are being targeted by con artists, said Margo Hamilton, who heads Riverside County’s Curtailing Abuse Related to the Elderly program, known as CARE.

It provides preventive education and help for seniors who are victims of fraud. Anstett allegedly was swindled in what authorities say was a Ponzi scheme that recently bilked more than 1,500 investors out of $178 million. Many of the alleged victims were from San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties. Four executives from the investment firm were charged with grand theft, selling false securities and other financial crimes. Their cases have yet to come to trial.

“I have 80- and 90-year-olds looking for work right now,” said Lori See, who works with seniors in the CARE program, a division of Adult Protective Services.

Staff members counsel seniors who believe they have been victims of consumer fraud. The staffers walk them through the process, from the initial investigation to filing claims, police reports, and in some cases drive them to court hearings, Hamilton said.

“Part of what makes [seniors] vulnerable is their fear that they won’t have enough money to live on until they die. They think, ‘If I can get a higher interest rate, that will be enough,’ ” she said.

CARE was launched as a pilot program in 1997 in the county’s San Jacinto Valley because a group of service providers determined that fraud cases involving seniors were not being handled effectively, said Hamilton.

Now run through the county Department of Public Social Services, the program is staffed by 10 people, with a $750,000 annual budget and regional offices in Moreno Valley, Lake Elsinore, Jurupa, Indio and two in Hemet. It has recovered more than $17 million for Riverside County seniors, Hamilton said.

Staff members work closely with community and senior centers as well as churches to teach seniors how to avoid being victimized. They assist those who have already fallen prey to fraud and teach service providers to identify signs of abuse and report them, Hamilton said.

The agency also works with police and federal law enforcement officials, local prosecutors and health officials to discuss elder abuse cases and coordinate efforts to combat fraud.

“We are the only specialized unit in Adult Protective Services in California handling consumer fraud issues,” Hamilton said. “Others provide pieces of what we do. We bring them all together.”

The program also is unique nationwide, Hamilton said. It was recently selected as a semifinalist for one of six Innovations in American Government awards, a program of the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

“A systematic, creative, out-of-the-box approach is certainly what caught our eye,” said Carl Fillichio, vice president for the Council for Excellence in Government, the national nonprofit organization that co-administers the award. “They are not just placing ads in newspapers; they are going directly to the seniors.”

When Anstett learned that the Placentia investment company, DW Heath & Associates, was shut down and four of its executives arrested, he wanted answers. But he wasn’t getting any -- until a friend told him about CARE.

Even though Anstett lives in Anaheim, the Riverside County agency put him on a mailing list to get status reports on the case.

Because of the large number of seniors caught up in the alleged Heath investment fraud, the agency made an exception to its rules and expanded its assistance to seniors living outside of Riverside County.

Hamilton said her agency had been receiving complaints about Heath since 1998 and had notified the California Department of Corporations.

The county program helped Anstett connect with others who lived near him and who had also lost their savings in the alleged scheme, and it arranged a meeting in Hemet for all the alleged victims.

The scope of the fraud astounded and humbled Anstett.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “There were people with wheelchairs and crutches and one leg gone, and I looked around and I said, ‘My God, I’m not so bad off after all.’ ”

Florine Parke, 77, is also thankful.

“CARE has been the most wonderful source of help,” she said. “They send out information about what is going on and what to expect. It’s been like having my own personal counselor.”

Like Anstett, Parke, a La Habra resident, lost nearly everything: almost $1 million in the alleged scam. Parke, a retired English teacher, says she survives on prayer and faith.

“I have always been grateful that my husband died before he knew,” she said. “It would have shocked him so badly. I hate to think of it.”