Senecan bares her soul during anti-senior scam hearing

Seneca resident Polly Fehler, a retired military officer, came across during a U-S Senate hearing today as someone who has played it by the book—someone careful to watch her money and guard what she’ll have to spend in her retirement years.  Yet Fehler’s experience illustrates how criminals use unusual methods to separate law-abiding citizens from the money they’ve earned.  The Seneca woman was one of the witnesses for a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.  The chairman, Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey, and the ranking member, South Carolina Republican Tim Scott, are drawing attention to the financial and health consequences seniors face after surviving a scam and focusing on ways to better educate older Americans on how to protect themselves.  For Fehler, misfortune started when, trying to find someone to correct her computer problems, she became the victim of someone who purported to represent a prominent technology corporation.  A man on the phone who had promised to correct her computer trouble was able to access her financial records and to steal.  Casey, for one, was impressed and thankful to the Seneca woman for stepping forward, saying, “I think we are all indebted to you for the testimony you are willing to share with us.  I know it can’t be easy to re-live some of that horror.  We’re grateful you are willing to do it to help others.”