Opinion: We need more than education to stop elder scams. We need law enforcement.

Pirrello is a deputy district attorney and the head of elder abuse protections. He lives in San Diego.

For years, victims of elder financial abuse scams have lost their life savings only to be told nothing can be done to help because the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are overseas and out of reach.

Recent estimates suggest that total losses across the U.S. from elder scams now exceed several billion dollars a year. Shockingly, in San Diego County alone, we see over 1,000 victims each year losing an estimated $20 million to $30 million to these scams.

These victims are retired military, former educators, health care professionals and even many retired members of law enforcement. They are our parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends. No one is immune.

What are the most common scams impacting elder San Diegans right now? The grandparent scam convinces elders their grandchildren are in peril in some foreign jail and need bail money to save them. Variations of the information technology scam contact elders offering to “help” with a computer virus by remotely accessing their computer (and their online banking in the process). The law enforcement scam tells victims that the Drug Enforcement Administration, Sheriff’s Department or District Attorney’s Office has a warrant for their arrest unless they pay. The San Diego Gas & Electric scam tells victims of an unpaid bill that needs to be remedied. Untold phone calls from Social Security and the IRS persist. And so many more — too many to mention.

Once victims have fallen for the scam, they are sent to banks with instructions on how to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars without inviting scrutiny (most often referencing a construction project). Victims are routinely sent to big box retailers to purchase thousands in gift cards and then reveal the pin numbers to scammers, who pull the funds off the cards. Victims are now with increasing frequency being sent to convenience stores throughout the county to deposit their hard-earned life savings into Bitcoin cryptocurrency ATM machines where they feed their cash, enter a code given by scammers and send their money off into the dark web.

To combat this, we must first recognize that historically, the collective law enforcement response to this plague locally and federally has been lacking. There is no other category of crime that is so prevalent in our day-to-day lives yet so widely ignored and accepted.

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Teaching fraud prevention and raising awareness is a critically important component of fighting this. However, we cannot educate ourselves out of this problem. Law enforcement is now proactively fighting this epidemic by disrupting the criminal syndicates responsible. We now know that despite most of the actual scammers being overseas, there is a flourishing billion-dollar black market economy of money launderers operating throughout the U.S. that the scammers rely on to facilitate their efforts.

Under the leadership of District Attorney Summer Stephan, the county DA’s office is proud of the recent announcement creating a first of its kind Elder Justice Task Force in partnership with the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice and our local U.S. Attorney’s Office, along with local law enforcement agencies, county Adult Protective Services and the San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center.

This problem is not easy to fix. But the initial collaborative work of the task force has proven that by rolling up our collective sleeves we can end these predatory calls. Curing this ill completely will take a monumental investment of resources and buy-in from local and federal government, law enforcement, Adult Protective Services, the retail and banking industries, and others all around the country. The effort to combat it will cost exponentially less than the billions of dollars a year currently being lost.

Often, there is an inexplicable matter-of-fact resignation that every one of us knows someone who has lost money to these scams. But we know the impact on even one elder victim is devastating. There should be outrage for each and every victim.

We now have the road map to confront this, and we’re already seeing results. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office has a proud legacy of leading the fight for elder abuse prevention and prosecution nationally, and with this unprecedented commitment and collaboration from our federal partners we are at a critical point.

There is no more worthy cause than to protect our vulnerable elder victims and put a stop to this before each of us becomes the next victim up on the conveyor belt.

If you have been the victim of an elder scam, please contact your local police agency to file a report.