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Tucson Standard

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Pima's Fraud Unit reaches $1 million in restitution for victims: 'just a warm ear to listen and take a report has been a game changer'

Billing fraud

The Pima County Attorney’s Office’s Fraud Unit has now reached $1 million in restitution for fraud victims in roughly a year of operation.

County Attorney Laura Conover said the unit, combined with the efforts of the Southern Arizona Anti-Fraud Task Force, has made an important difference in bringing more manpower to fraud cases and getting justice for victims.

"Providing just a warm ear to listen and take a report has been a game changer,” she said in a story by KGUN.

Conover said the fraud unit and the task force have "brought together some 30 dedicated detectives and prosecutors from every Southern Arizona region,” all of whom have been needed to confront the backlog of fraud cases on file.

Since January of 2020, there have been more than 1,500 fraud complaints filed with 623 convictions, according to the story.

"Even a small dollar amount, especially in the last couple of years of COVID, can mean the difference between paying rent or not paying your rent,” Conover said. “Trying to restore victims to where they were before the harm is a wonderful accomplishment.”

The task force has spent the past year battling frauds such as phone scams targeting the elderly and contractors who take money without performing work. Conover said scammers will attempt anything to elicit a response.

"A popular one was the grandchild that had an emergency and needed some quick cash. Those cases just made out blood boil,” she said. “We’ve been working those cases and doing prevention lectures out in the community.”

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