Overview
- StopScams SF is a city-led program funded by a three-year, $3 million grant from JPMorganChase and the treasurer’s office calls it the nation’s first effort of its kind.
- The initiative will roll out free one-on-one financial counseling for victims and develop multilingual real-time alerts to reach seniors, young adults and people with limited English.
- Part of the funding will go to build a verification system for payment requests that claim to be from city government and to create a single pathway for residents to report suspected scams.
- City officials say the program will coordinate the treasurer’s office, police, 311 operators and prosecutors to unify investigations and provide clearer guidance to residents.
- Officials framed the launch as a response to a sharp national rise in government-impersonation scams, including examples of an 84-year-old who lost $30,000 and a student scammed for about $160.