The Scale of the Problem
The Facts About Senior Scams
These senior scam statistics come from official federal sources and are updated as new reports are released. Scams affecting older adults are not rare, simple, or harmless. They are often carefully designed to create urgency, fear, trust, or confusion before a person has time to stop and think.
The numbers are serious—but they also point to a simple truth: many losses may be prevented when someone pauses and asks for a second opinion.
in reported losses among Americans age 60 and older in 2025
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Annual Report
complaints reported to the FBI IC3
average reported loss per complaint
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 201,266 complaints from people age 60 and older. These figures represent reports submitted to the FBI IC3—many scams are never reported, so the true impact may be greater.
What the numbers really mean
A large total can feel abstract. Behind every report is a person, a family, and often years of savings, trust, or independence.
The data also corrects a common misconception: older adults are not simply “more gullible.” In fact, FTC data on fraud losses among older Americans shows that older adults often report losing money to fraud at a lower rate than younger adults. But when older adults do lose money, the losses can be much larger.
Losses are rising
The FTC reported that fraud losses reported by adults 60 and older rose from about $600 million in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2024.
Source: Federal Trade Commission, Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025
The oldest adults can lose more
Adults age 80 and older reported a median individual fraud loss of more than $1,600 in 2024.
Source: Federal Trade Commission
Some scams hit older adults especially hard
Older adults were more likely than younger adults to report losing money to tech-support, prize and sweepstakes, romance, and government impersonation scams—including $159 million in reported tech-support scam losses in 2024.
Source: Federal Trade Commission
How Scams Work
Scams are designed to override good judgment
Modern scams are rarely random requests for money. They are structured conversations built to control a person’s attention and emotions.
Urgency
“You must act now.”
Authority
“This is the bank, police, government, or a trusted company.”
Secrecy
“Do not tell anyone.”
Emotion
Fear, affection, embarrassment, excitement, or concern for family.
These tactics can affect anyone. Intelligence, education, and life experience do not make a person immune to a carefully timed lie.
People do not become scam victims because they are foolish. They become victims because scammers are skilled at creating pressure before there is time to think.
The phone remains a critical pressure point
For older adults who reported losing $10,000 or more to business or government impersonation scams in 2024, the FTC found that 41% of those scams began with a phone call.
A convincing voice, a familiar company name, or a spoofed caller ID can make a false story feel immediate and real.
Source: Federal Trade Commission, “False Alarm, Real Scam,” 2025
What families can do
Adult children and caregivers often recognize the risk—but they cannot answer every call, inspect every message, or always be available at the moment something feels wrong.
The goal should not be to take away independence. It should be to make asking for a second opinion easy, normal, and judgment-free—the foundation of good senior fraud prevention.
A simple family safety habit
- Pause before sending money or sharing information.
- End the call or conversation.
- Contact the company or family member through a known number.
- Ask someone trustworthy to review the situation.
- Never be embarrassed to ask twice.
A scammer needs urgency. Protection begins with a pause.
Prevention can begin with one conversation
Many scams depend on isolation. They work best when the target feels rushed, embarrassed, or afraid to involve someone else.
Senior Signal gives members a calm, trusted person to contact before they respond, send money, click a link, or share personal information.
If you’re ever unsure, we’d rather you call us one hundred times than become the victim of one scam.
How to report a scam
If you believe you have encountered a scam, reporting it can help investigators identify trends, warn others, and sometimes prevent additional victims. Reporting fraud does more than document what happened—it helps authorities recognize new scam patterns, issue public warnings, and may prevent others from becoming victims.
Federal Trade Commission
Report fraud through ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Reports help the FTC identify nationwide fraud patterns.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
For internet-related fraud, phishing, online investment scams, ransomware, and similar incidents, report to IC3.gov.
Your Financial Institution
If money has already been sent or an account may be compromised, contact your bank or credit card company immediately.
Local Law Enforcement
If a crime has occurred or you feel physically threatened, contact your local law enforcement agency.
Senior Signal
If you’re unsure whether something is legitimate—or if you’ve already interacted with a suspicious caller, email, text message, or website—Senior Signal can help review the situation.
When appropriate, we may also help members prepare information for reporting scams to the right agencies, explain the process, and help organize documentation. We do not guarantee investigations or recovery of lost funds.
Sources and methodology
Senior Signal uses official federal data to help explain elder fraud statistics and the scope of scams affecting older adults. Different agencies collect reports through different systems, so their totals should not be added together or treated as identical measurements.
Reported losses also do not represent every scam. Many people do not report incidents because of embarrassment, uncertainty, fear, or because they do not know where to report them.
Primary statistical sources
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center — 2025 Annual Report
- Federal Trade Commission — Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025
- Federal Trade Commission — False Alarm, Real Scam: How Scammers Are Stealing Older Adults’ Life Savings
Educational resources
These organizations support prevention guidance and are not the source of the statistics above.