Fraud losses reported by older adults elevated fivefold between 2020 and 2025, leaping from $600 million to $3 billion, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated Monday (Oct. 19).
The FTC shared this knowledge in a press release outlining findings from its report back to Congress, “Protecting Older Consumers 2025-2026: A Report of the Federal Trade Commission.”
The progress in fraud losses reported by adults 60 or older was pushed largely by a rising variety of incidents involving “extraordinarily large individual losses,” the discharge stated.
In its report back to Congress, the FTC stated: “This increase was largely driven by reports of losses over $100,000, often to investment scams, romance scams or impersonations.”
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While older adults report dropping cash to fraud at decrease charges than youthful adults, they’re extra prone to report dropping cash on sure types of fraud. These embody tech assist scams; prize, sweepstakes and lottery scams; romance scams; authorities impersonation scams; and scams impersonating buddies or relations, per the discharge.
PYMNTS reported in June 2024 that as extra child boomers and seniors went on-line to get their banking carried out, they turned targets of fraudsters.
The FTC’s report additionally outlines the fee’s efforts to guard older adults from fraud. These efforts embody regulation enforcement, outreach and training, efforts to watch the marketplace for rising traits, and collaborations with stakeholders in private and non-private sectors.
“The FTC is committed to protecting older adults from scams, including by taking every action necessary to shut down fraud operations,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stated in the discharge.
PYMNTS reported in September that the House accredited laws aimed toward giving state and native regulation enforcement extra sources to analyze refined financial scams concentrating on older shoppers.
The GUARD Act would increase the methods regulation enforcement businesses can use present federal grant funding to analyze monetary fraud and would expressly authorize federal businesses to assist these authorities deploy blockchain-tracing expertise.
U .S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., who co-led the act, stated in a September press launch: “Every day, scammers are targeting our seniors, draining the hard-earned savings they spent a lifetime building, often with a single phone call or a fake investment scheme.”
