Top Scams Targeting Older Adults

Incidents of fraud have exploded, with older adults suffering the greatest financial impact from fraud last year, according to the FBI’s 2025 IC3 Annual Report. Americans age 60 and older reported losses of $7.7 billion — about a 60 percent increase from 2024.  

But because so many victims don’t report these crimes, these figures don’t reflect fraud’s true impact: Losses in a single year may have reached $196 billion when accounting for underreporting, the FTC reported last year.

How to combat this scourge? One important way is through awareness: Knowing which scams are currently the most prevalent, how they work, and how to avoid them.

You’ll find the answers to all the above in this series.