Fraud summit focuses on educating seniors

The third annual Senior Fraud Protection Summit is Saturday, May 18 to learn about individual protection against fraud scams that target seniors.     

My Glacier Village is organizing the event in partnership with AARP of Montana, Flathead Electric Cooperative, Glacier Bank, and Merrill Lynch. The partner organizations want to increase awareness and education to reduce and eliminate the theft that can greatly impact their older clients. The event will help people understand how to recognize and protect themselves from fraud and scams. 

The summit is 10 a.m. to noon at the Arts and Technology Building on the Flathead Valley Community College campus in Kalispell. 

Keynote speaker for the event will be Financial Abuse Specialist Chris McConnell with the Montana Office of Securities. McConnell is an attorney with over 12 years of prosecution experience, much of which includes prosecuting white-collar crime and elder abuse. He was a member of Montana’s Elder Abuse Task Force and provides training across Montana to law enforcement, victim service providers, county attorneys, and financial professionals. 

Additional presenters include Connie Tuman with Glacier Bank, Cory Clarke with the Kalispell Police Department, and Carla Reed from Flathead County Agency on Aging. They will focus on fraud scams that target seniors, provide tips on how to avoid becoming a victim, discuss resources to assist seniors, and a question/answer session. Light refreshments will be served.   Pre-registration is required by visiting www.myglacier.com/events or by calling 406-250-8784.