SACRAMENTO — The Little Hoover Commission on Friday heard experts, industry representatives and prosecutors call for a coordinated California response to growing online financial scams that drain savings from people of all ages, with particularly devastating effects on older and dependent adults.

Donata Bohannick, executive director of the California Elder Justice Coalition, urged lawmakers and regulators to focus on stopping transactions “mid‑process” so “the dollars [do]n’t leave the accounts” and become irretrievable. Bohannick described phone‑based coercion as a high‑pressure interaction that often requires an in‑person or immediate human intervention to break the victim’s compliance.

The commission was told that the schemes now run by transnational networks use a mix of tactics — spoofed phone numbers, coached bank‑branch interactions, courier services and crypto conversions — and that the prevention window is often narrow. “The best way to protect customers from fraud and scams is to prevent criminals from carrying out their schemes in the first place,” Darius Kingsley, head of consumer banking practices at JPMorgan Chase, said in his testimony.

Why it matters: State witnesses and industry representatives said stopping losses upstream — at the point of initial contact or before funds leave a bank account — offers the only practical way to reduce the large and growing number of victims. Several speakers pointed to San Diego’s elder fraud task force as a model that pairs adult protective services, property‑crimes investigators and prosecutors to act quickly when a live loss is underway.

What was said and proposed

- Multidisciplinary local teams: Bohannick and San Diego prosecutors described multidisciplinary teams as a primary tool: rapid local coordination among adult protective services, property‑crimes units and federal partners can freeze or intercept transfers when a victim is still accessible.

- Data sharing and legal tools: Coinbase’s director of global intelligence, Kelsey Dean, said blockchain transparency helps tracing but that “greater public guidance from the state of California on the use of [hold‑harmless] agreements or the establishment of a comparable mechanism would significantly strengthen the ability of Coinbase and other financial institutions to recover lost funds.” Industry representatives and prosecutors urged narrower legal protections to facilitate responsible intelligence sharing between tech platforms, financial institutions and law enforcement.

- Federal versus state roles: Witnesses repeatedly emphasized the transnational nature of many scams and the limits of state authority. Still, they urged California to act on what it can: standardize reporting, assign law‑enforcement points of contact, enable use of driver‑license verification data, and create a state task force to coordinate private and public actors.

- Banks’ detection and limitations: Banking witnesses described investments in AI monitoring, 24/7 fraud detection and suspicious‑activity reporting (SAR) to FinCEN but acknowledged that many scams surface before a bank can act and that customers resent holds on time‑sensitive payments. Chase told commissioners the firm stopped “more than $12,000,000,000 in fraud attempts last year” at a firmwide level, but also said preventing scams requires cross‑sector collaboration.

- Telecom and traceback work: Josh Berkew of the Industry Traceback Group described success reducing mass robocalls and the value of rapid traceback for enforcement. He urged legal clarity (for example, safe harbors) so carriers, platforms and law enforcement can share more information quickly.

Limitations and next steps: Multiple witnesses said criminal enforcement and seizures can be decisive — but also resource‑intensive and slow. Local models like San Diego provide promising results but handle a small fraction of reported incidents. Commissioners instructed staff to return with options for state actions, and asked for further hearings and a possible task force proposal.

The commission will accept public comment and continue the conversation at upcoming hearings on related topics, including a planned review of reporting and state coordination mechanisms.