Oregon Attorney General Takes Aim at Fraud

Oregon’s new attorney general, Dan Rayfield, took office eager to tackle scams, predatory lending, identity theft and credit card fraud as head of the state’s Department of Justice.

He’ll have plenty to keep him busy. Rayfield, a Democrat, is a lawyer and former speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. He assumes the job as crimes against consumers continue to plague the state. More than 50,000 reports from Oregon consumers for fraud, identity theft and other issues were filed with the Federal Trade Commission in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, 2024 — and the FTC says a significant percentage of cases go unreported.

Rayfield, 46, is from Corvallis and spoke with the Bulletin in December as he prepared to start his four-year term. The conversation has been edited for clarity and space.

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Scams and fraud are ever-evolving. What can you and your office do to curb these crimes, prosecute offenders and help victims?
The Department of Justice does not have people that are just sitting in communities as an active police force looking for consumers’ complaints. We are really reliant upon having good communication with third parties and individuals informing us about ... emerging issues going on in our state.... We can react in terms of education and outreach. Then we can react in holding folks accountable.... I really believe we can do more of this work by expanding some of those resources in the state, so that when people think about consumer protection, when they have been harmed ... they think about the Department of Justice as a resource. I want to continue to build towards that North Star.

What drives you to protect older Oregonians?
I spent 18 years of my life working in private practice on behalf of consumers, seniors and working families — and you really see the impact that one negative event can have on the trajectory of an individual’s next six months, one year.... In extreme cases, it can really derail someone during their final decades.... I have seen cases where an individual lost [an] amount that maybe during your working years wasn’t going to be overwhelming.... You knew that over time you’re going to be able to potentially recover from that. It’s not easy, but you can. But in retirement, on fixed incomes, these types of events can have just a really dramatic impact.

Consumer protection is one of your priorities. What are your goals in this area?
There is prevention before something occurs.... There is education and coordination with groups like AARP on this prevention component. There is prevention in terms of deterrence by holding people accountable.... Sometimes there are inefficiencies in the private market for people to be able to find attorneys to hold various bad actors accountable — folks that might be operating in multiple states.... But the attorney general’s role to hold some of these entities or bad actors accountable is one of the best places to do that and have meaningful results. 

What existing resources will you keep, and what resources might you add?
What you want to have is a bulk of resources that really can meet the needs that ... ebb and flow in the community. So one year we might ... see a prevalence of timeshare scams come in, or you might move in a different direction now that has a tie to elder abuse.... We need to make sure that we’re monitoring the need and then staffing up to be able to then address those issues. And a lot of that has to be done in partnership with the Legislature to make sure that they understand the needs that we have in our state and make sure that they’re appropriating the proper resources so that we can be responsive.

How will your background help you in this role?
Some of the most significant events that really shaped me [came from] the diversity of my parents and the way they approached issues. My mother was — or is — a Green [Party] member.... She would go off and get arrested at the Nevada nuclear test sites, protesting nuclear war.... My dad, on the other hand, was an insurance executive. He was a colonel in the Reserves up here in Oregon, and obviously had conservative views.... I legitimately asked about nuclear weapons.... He’s like, we need to have nuclear weapons [for peace] in our world.... These two people that you deeply love want the same thing ... but are going about it in very different ways. I think in today’s world, it’s incredibly easy to demonize each other.... The way that I approached that in my 10 years in the Legislature ... was to build a culture really trying to understand that all people are there for the right reasons, for the most part.... This is a skill that we use to ... identify the common interests to be able to solve those issues in different ways.

As a state representative, you helped pass laws aimed at increasing affordable housing and preventing homelessness, a problem that affects a growing number of older residents. How will you continue to address these issues as AG?
As attorney general, I have a different set of tools.... We have tools of prevention. We have tools of enforcement. Then you have tools to be able to bring people to the table.... At the same time, you have a soapbox, right? I am no longer a legislator, but I have a soapbox to advocate for policies that move us in the right direction in these areas of common value.

AARP supports state legislation that aims to further deter age discrimination in the workplace. What are your thoughts on this?
I’ve been supportive of this work in the past. I haven’t seen the most recent [version]. So I’m looking forward to digging in with AARP. The value that they are working towards — and that we have been working towards for a long time — is incredibly important.

Sarah Hollander, a freelance writer and former daily newspaper reporter in Cleveland, has written for the Bulletin for 16 years.

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