mr. kauffman. you are recognized for five minutes for an opening statement, please. >> thank you and good morning, dr. burgess, ranking member schakowsky. i'm delighted to appear before you to provide an overview of the fraud threats to older americans and the ftc's actions to address them. combatting fraud is a critical component of the ftc's consumer protection mission and virtually every law enforcement case that we bring affects older americans. we have adopted a multifaceted approach in our battle against fraud that targets older consumers or injures them more than others and that includes aggressive law enforcement, policy initiatives, and consumer education and outreach. to address such fraud effectively, the ftc monitors fraud trends by examining data gathered from consumer complaints and surveys and collaborating with others in law enforcement, industry, academia, and legal services. through our extensive law enforcement experience and efforts to track fraud trends we have identified pract

mr. kauffman.i understand the ftc won a complaint after filing a complaint against a telemarketing scheme designed to trick and did trick seniors by pretending to be part of the medicare. could you describe the specifics of that case and why that victory is so important for consumers? >> sure. thank you for acknowledging this case. it's a very important case. it's sun bright. telemarketers were claiming to be affiliated with medicare. they falsely promised new cards for consumers and required people to provide their bank account numbers. they used the numbers to withdraw several hundred dollars from the consumers. it's very consistent with cases we have seen where they are misrepresenting affiliations with government entities to scam consumers out of personal and financial benefits. >> how does the ftc coordinate with cms to prevent this type of fraud? >> we do work with them. we talk to them. we also issue alerts. when there are changes in health benefits that are public available, we know frauds

mr. kauffman -- mr. kaufman, you state the importance of recognizing trends and fraud against the elderly as the pop lair of -- population of older americans continues to grow. the census estimates that the number of seniors 65 and older will surpass americans under a age 18 for the first time, actually, we're 18 years away from that, in 201313. -- in 2033. what resources is the f.t.c. putting toward following trends in fraud against the elderly, allocate regular sources to prosecute fraud,ing and assessing the risk? mr. kaufman: our consumer sentinel database, which has millions of complaints, is an incredibly important tool for us. we all share information, put it into the database and we're frequently analyzing it, looking for trends an developments. we're also continuing to do more law enforcement and more outreach. it's a very important priority or us. mr. bilirakis: i've had several seminars in my area in florida and you participated, the f.t.c. has, and done a wonderful job. maybe this question al