The FBI released a report on Tuesday revealing that scammers stole more than $3 billion from senior citizens in America during 2023. The report highlights the increasing sophistication of scam tactics used to trick vulnerable, older individuals into handing over their life savings to criminal gangs.
According to the FBI’s report, losses from scams targeting Americans over the age of 60 rose by 11% compared to the previous year.
Investigators are asking senior groups to help raise the alarm about schemes tactics, including the use of couriers to collect cash or gold from victims in person.
Deputy Assistant Director James Barnacle of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division emphasized the devastating impact these scams can have on older Americans, who may lack the ability to recover financially.
“People lose all their money. Some people become destitute,” he said.
The FBI received over 100,000 complaints from victims over the age of 60 last year, with nearly 6,000 individuals losing more than $100,000 each. The sharp rise in reported losses by older Americans coincides with the two years following the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, during which people were more isolated at home and easier for scammers to target over the phone.
Organized international criminal gangs are increasingly targeting older Americans through various scams, such as fake romance scams and investment frauds, according to Barnacle.
The most reported fraud among older adults last year was tech support scams. One increasingly common scam involves criminals impersonating technology, banking, and government officials who convince victims that hackers have infiltrated their bank accounts.
The scammers then instruct the victims to move their money to a new account, which is secretly controlled by the criminals.
Federal investigators also have warned about an increase in scammers using live couriers to collect money from victims.
Earlier this month, an 81-year-old Ohio man tragically shot and killed an Uber driver he mistakenly believed was trying to rob him after receiving scam phone calls. The man had been receiving calls from someone pretending to be an officer from the local court demanding money, and the Uber driver had been instructed to retrieve a package from the man’s home, possibly by the same scam caller or an accomplice.
Even more alarming is that the losses suffered by older Americans are almost certainly underestimated, as only about half of the more than 880,000 complaints reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center last year included information on the age of the victim.