director david vladeck of the bureau of consumer protection and kent markus, the head of the enforcement. today is the work -- today as the working group gathers for the second time since its inaugural meeting, i want to express my gratitude for your leadership and for your dedication and protecting the safety and economic security of consumers across the country. these are goals and these are responsibilities that we all share. each one of us has a role in fulfilling them. for me, and for today's department of justice, protecting american consumers is a top priority. as we have rededicate ourselves to this work in recent years, we have also learned some lessons. primarily, fully understanding the threats that consumers face and protecting their interests in a comprehensive way is not

host: stephen vladeck?uest: the notion that we do not have free press is a notion that most members of the press would debate. one thing we can take some comfort in is how seriously injured list of taken the important -- how important a role information takes in the public. technology has changed the question of how we keep tabs on the government, how we inform ourselves in a ticket and civilized societies. if you read what the newspapers themselves have said about their decisions to publish stories like the wiretapping program, the wikileaks table -- the editor of "the new york times koko has published a series of personal reflections on what kind -- times" has published a series of personal reflections on what kind of questions are asked. there were any number of times when the bush administration, the obama administration tried to stop stories from running, but it was the power of the press that led us to learning about these programs, at least more than what we knew before the press was involved. host:

people who have done their due diligence and is david vladeck said. we have last dollar scam that target individual consumers for mortgage relief for debt relief and scams that target people whose jobs have been downsized and spouses have been laid off. retirees whose 401(k)s read like stephen king novels because of the crisis wall street jumped on us. it is really everybody. even people who have done their due diligence as rick said. >> same thing with your victims. >> that is one of the challenges in trying to get the message out. we had a press conference not so much in the business opportunity realm but what was mentioned earlier. we were able to get seven folks come forward. one of the persons i worked with in the city of los angeles, college educated fell for it and so the challenge is getting people -- it can happen to anyone. we try to let people know that. >> in addition to law enforcement, there is educational component to all this. we want to talk about the educational efforts being made. >> first of all the federal trade commission web sit

the panelist will be david vladeck, elizabeth costle, naomy karp, jonathan j. rusch, deputy chief of strategy and strategy at the criminal justice, jeffery steger, the senior litigation council from the consumer production branch department of justice and abby kuzma the director of consumer protection in the office of the indiana attorney general. and with that, i give you michael blume, our moderator. thank you. [applause] >> well, thanks, folks. and good afternoon. this panel, i suspect, will be very being and informative and let's just get right to it. we're going to talk about fraud directed at the elderly. it seems to me a natural question is, why do we have a special panel on fraud on the elderly. there is research that concerns particular vulnerabilities, that older folks may have that make them more susceptible than others to certain kinds of frauds and i'd like to start then with betsy about some of the research at the aarp may have done concerning those kinds of vulnerabilities. and if you could give us some of those factors that make older folks even

the panelists will be david vladeck, elizabeth costle -- director of state affairs at the aarp.aomi karp from the office of older americans consumer financial protection bureau. jonathan rusch, deputy chief for strategy and policy. jeffrey steger, the senior litigation counsel for the consumer protection brands -- branch. and abby kuzma, the director of consumer protection in the office of the indiana attorney general. with that, i give you michael blume, our matter -- moderator. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. good afternoon. this panel, i suspect, will be interesting. let us get right to it. we are going to talk about fraud directed at the elderly. it seems to the natural question -- why do we have a special panel on fraud on the elderly? there is research that concerns particular vulnerability is that older folks may have that make them more susceptible than others to certain kinds of fraud. i would like to start than with the research that the aarp may have done concerning those vulnerabilities. if you could give us some of those factors that make older folks more vulner

it's people like you and me, educated people who have done their due diligence as david vladeck saidearlier in the bad economy are facing with last dollar scams that target individual consumers for mortgage relief for debt relief and we also had cans that target people whose jobs have been downsized and the people whose spouses have been laid off, retirees whose 401(k)s for x stephen king novels because of the crisis wall street dump on us. so it's really everybody. i see that people have done their due diligence as rich said. >> same thing with your victims click >> absolutely. one of the challenges we had in trying to get the big dems to come forward. we recently had a press conference, not so much in the business opportunity, but the relative in distress schemes mentioned earlier. we are able to get seven folks to come forward. when you looked at them, one of the persons i worked with the city of los angeles in my prayers chap was college-educated and the challenge i think is getting people to come forward and not feel that it could happen to anyone about that we try to do is let