Fighting Back Against Fraud

After more than 40 years as a prosecutor, Ellen Cohen has held firmly to two beliefs: Anyone can become a crime victim, and all victims deserve respect.

It’s why, as an AARP Florida volunteer, she educates law enforcement about ways to avoid inadvertently blaming or shaming the victim of a scam.

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That means not asking a fraud victim “How could you fall for that?” or “What were you thinking?” says Cohen, 70, a Boca Raton resident who worked as a local prosecutor in Pennsylvania before spending most of her career as a federal prosecutor in South Florida.

Instead, she tells police, “Get to know them, get to understand their story” to learn how the fraud occurred.

“If we do that,” Cohen says, “not only can we help them with their problem, but we can learn ... how to help somebody else avoid being a victim.”

The problem of fraud is big — and getting bigger. Nationwide, consumers of all ages reported losing about $12.8 billion to scammers in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That same year, Florida had 161,400 fraud reports totaling $885 million in losses, the agency says. Because most fraud is not reported, experts say the true numbers are far higher.

“Fraud is happening at such monumental levels—like we have never seen before,” says Karen Murillo, an associate state director of advocacy for AARP Florida.

And while fraud hits people of all ages, older people make lucrative targets because they tend to have more savings, says Kathy Stokes, AARP’s senior director of fraud prevention programs.

OLDER RESIDENTS A TARGET

Americans 60 and older have seen a substantial increase in losses to fraud, with reported losses up fourfold since 2020, according to the FTC. The increase was driven largely by reported losses of more than $100,000, often to investment scams, the FTC says.

“It used to be maybe five or more years ago, the scams were like, ‘Let’s get a thousand bucks off of them and move on,’” Stokes says. “And now they’re holding on for months, creating these trust relationships and taking everything — just everything.”

One way criminals are stealing large amounts quickly: directing victims to deposit cash into cryptocurrency kiosks, also known as crypto ATMs and often found in convenience stores, gas stations and liquor stores.

The money going into the ATMs gets transferred electronically to a series of “wallets” and ultimately to the criminal. Tracing those transactions after the fact is difficult and requires time and expertise that many law enforcement agencies don’t have, Stokes says.