Mayor Emily Kaden proclaimed April 2026 Fraud Prevention Month in Helena during a recent City Commission meeting, partnering with AARP to highlight what federal data shows is a growing crisis for older Americans. The FTC estimates fraud losses reached $196 billion nationally in 2024, with up to $81.5 billion stolen from adults over 60. In Montana alone, residents reported $22.5 million in fraud losses last year, with older adults losing an average of $83,000 — four times the average across all age groups.

Two Helena-area men put a local face on those statistics. Rob Fryad, 71, a retired teacher and former Last Chance Gulch business owner, told the commission he lost $16,000 over the course of a single eight-hour phone call, directed by scammers to hand over cash at a Bitcoin machine. Fryad noted that holding a psychology degree offered him no protection. Tom Schneider, 78, a former three-term Montana Public Service Commissioner and petroleum engineer, described a more elaborate scheme spanning multiple weeks, in which scammers posed sequentially as Microsoft, a bank fraud officer, and a Federal Trade Commission agent. The fraudsters ultimately convinced Schneider to liquidate his IRA, purchase gold bars, and hand them to a person outside his home who posed as an undercover federal agent. Schneider said he lost his life savings, and credited Helena Police Officer Josh Graham for taking his case seriously when he reported it.

AARP representatives Marcus Meyer and Kristen Paige Nye announced two upcoming events: an online fraud prevention webinar on April 15 and a free document shred event on April 22 at the Helena UPS store, where residents can shred up to two boxes of personal documents. Commissioner Logan told the group that he and his wife spent eight years helping aging parents who were, in his words, 'under constant assault' from scammers.