Senior Spotlight: Baby Boomers Scammed Out Of $3.4 Billion Last Year
Older Americans are becoming increasingly targeted by phone scammers.
Can you imagine losing over $100,000 after calling ‘tech’ support? Or thinking you are wiring your money to a new account to ‘protect’ it? Sadly, this has been the reality for more than 100,000 individuals aged 59 to 77 who have reported such crimes to the FBI.
Just a few days ago, the FBI released their 2023 Elder Fraud Report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The publication outlines an 11% increase in monetary losses in 2023 compared to the previous year, as well as a 14% increase in filed complaints. Total dollars lost tops $3.4 billion in those over age 60; the actual figure is likely much higher as only 50% of the 880,000 filed complaints included age data.
The average amount lost per person due to scams last year was $33,915. Nearly 6,000 of the 101,068 older adult respondents reported financial losses greater than $100,000. The second highest age group was those aged 50-59 followed by those aged 40-49, who were scammed out of over $1.6 billion and $1.5 billion respectively.
In terms of how the money was extorted, a shocking 17,696 complaints cited thinking they were talking to tech support as the mechanism of loss. The second greatest reported crime type was a personal data breach. California ranked #1 for the most scam complaints across the US with a count of 11,622, followed by Florida at 8,138. Our state also totaled the greatest amount of loss with a dollar figure of $643,230,534 last year.
AARP has an entire resource center dedicated to helping older adults and their families proactively spot scams, report fraud attempts and track scams by zip code. We encourage you to visit the AARP Fraud Watch Network and share it with your friends and loved ones.
The New York Post also suggested in their last coverage of this topic that open communication is key to protecting older adults from scams. Having constant conversations with your parents and grandparents about scam types, informing them of protections without imposing, asking what they have heard about fraud and taking “an informative approach rather than an authoritative tone” are key.
We thank you for helping those in your circle of trust avoid getting taken advantage of.
Knowledge truly is power – and knowing what scams are out there and what they sound like is a critical part of limiting loss. Last but not least, do not move any large amounts of money without a second set of eyes!
Please be vigilant,
Bobbi
Bobbi Decker
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