5 days ago
FTC: Funds stolen from seniors in 'imposter' scams on the rise
The Federal Trade Commission warned that scams in which people impersonate businesses and federal agencies to steal money from older Americans have increased significantly since 2020. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Scams aiming to trick older Americans into giving money to strangers impersonating companies, government agencies and other entities have increased significantly since 2020, the Federal Trade Commission reported.
An FTC Consumer Protection Data Spotlight released Thursday said that total financial losses reported by people ages 60 and older who were ripped off for $100,000 or more via business and government impersonation scams went from $55 million in 2020 to $445 million in 2024.
Over the same time period, victims in the same age range who were scammed out of between $10,000 and $100,000 went from a total loss of $48 million to $214 million, while the total dollars lost by those robbed of $10,000 or less went from $19 million to $41 million.
The total number of business and government imposter reports filed by older adults who lost $10,000 or more soared from 1,790 in 2020 to 8,269 in 2024.
The scams, which have cost some people their entire life savings, tend to involve someone contacting the victims to warn them about a fraudulent problem and then persuading them to transfer their money to protect it from either hackers, criminal enterprises or someone logged into their accounts.
Once the victim is convinced the phony problem is a real threat to their finances, the scammers offer help with instructions on how to move their money, under a lie that doing so will either protect that cash or clear them of trouble.
Furthermore, the FBI reported in June that the total losses are most likely even higher because older Americans are less likely to report fraud because they either don't know how to do so, are embarrassed, or don't realize they've been scammed.
The FTC recommends that no one should ever transfer or send money to anyone, in response to a random call or message, no matter who they claim to be, and if anyone called by someone claiming to be from a business or governmental agency should hang up and verify but don't use any number the caller provides.
Anyone interested in keeping scammers from calling should also consider using call blocking.
