AARP Florida Recognizes Jeffery Merry Jr., Master Deputy of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, as a Community Fraud Fighter

AARP Florida recently named Master Deputy Jeffery Merry Jr., Community Resource Deputy of Sun City Center, a Florida Fraud Fighter of distinction at an awards ceremony on August 8.

The Florida Fraud Fighter award honors the dedication of individuals who are actively working to combat the scourge of scams and fraud targeting Floridians of all ages. This year, AARP offices across the country are honoring law enforcement officers, lawmakers, state officials, and community activists who are engaged in keeping people and their money safe with similar Community Fraud Fighter awards.

“Floridians of all ages and backgrounds are targeted by fraudsters looking to steal their money. We are fortunate to have strong advocates like Deputy Merry working hard to combat these criminals,” said Jeff Johnson, State Director of AARP Florida.

“Receiving the AARP Florida Fraud Fighter Award is an incredible honor, and I am deeply humbled to accept it,” said Merry. “This recognition not only affirms the importance of our efforts but also opens new opportunities for future endeavors in the fight against fraud. I am eager to continue this vital work and to expand our efforts to protect seniors from exploitation.”

Jeffery Merry Jr. boasts over 25 years of experience in law enforcement, with 13 of those years in Hillsborough County. Merry’s career with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office began in 2011, where he executed assignments in patrol, direct intelligence, and a Homeland Security Investigations Task Force. In 2015, he assumed his current role as a Sun City Center Community Resource Deputy.

As Resource Deputy, Merry has worked tirelessly to develop and execute programming to protect Sun City Center residents from scammers. This year he collaborated with AARP, political activists, and Florida lawmakers to advocate for legislation providing banks and other financial institutions the tools and training to pause potentially fraudulent transactions from seniors’ bank accounts. The proposed bill, Protection of Specified Adults, was passed in March, after Merry himself testified twice in support.

Merry is also passionate about educating seniors on fraud. Over the past nine years, he’s traveled throughout Hillsborough County to teach older Floridians about various scams and how to prevent them. He also provides community alerts, writes articles about scam prevention in local papers, and records fraud prevention broadcasts on local radio stations.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Floridians lost a reported $654 million to illegal scams in 2023 and the average victim lost nearly $600 per fraud. However, these numbers only reveal a fraction of actual theft from fraud, since the crime is notoriously underreported.

AARP Florida is focused on providing people of all ages the tools to spot and avoid scams through various in-person events (including our Florida Shredding events around the state), as well as sharing the latest Florida-specific fraud prevention and response resources on our Florida Fraud Resource Center at aarp.org/flfraud.

By honoring Jeffery as a Community Fraud Fighter, AARP Florida underscores our commitment to collaborative efforts aimed at combating fraud and safeguarding the financial well-being of Floridians.