Why Scammers Go After Seniors First, and What the 2025 Numbers Show

In 2025, Americans over 60 filed about one in five of the fraud complaints the FBI received. They also lost more than a third of all the money reported stolen. That gap says a lot about how criminals pick their targets.

Scammers don't pick victims at random. They go where the money is, where trust comes easily, and where victims are least likely to report. Too often, that means older adults.

The numbers: older adults lose the most

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its 2025 report this spring, and the figures for older victims are bleak:

• People 60 and older filed 201,266 complaints and reported $7.748 billion in losses.
• That works out to 37% more complaints and 59% more losses than in 2024.
• The average reported loss for an older victim was about $38,500. That's roughly 1.86 times the $20,699 average across all ages, according to an analysis of the report by the Elder Law & Advocacy group.
• At least 12,400 older victims each reported losing $100,000 or more.

The Federal Trade Commission's own data, sent to Congress on October 19, 2026, shows the same pattern. Older adults reported more than $3 billion in fraud losses in 2025, up from about $600 million in 2020. Over the same five years, the number of older adults reporting losses of more than $100,000 rose 496%, from 1,136 reports to 6,769. Even after adjusting for population size, older adults were more than twice as likely as younger adults to report a six-figure loss.

Those are only the cases people reported. Because so much fraud never gets reported, the FTC estimates the real cost to older adults in 2025 could be as high as $119.5 billion.

Today the Department of Justice released its annual elder justice report. Between July 2025 and June 2026, the department pursued nearly 350 criminal and civil enforcement actions involving fraud or abuse that targeted or affected older adults. Those cases named 712 defendants, who were charged with stealing, or alleged to have stolen, more than $4.8 billion from over 711,000 victims. About 45% involved international schemes.

Why scammers go after seniors

1. That's where the money is

Retirees often have decades of savings, retirement accounts and home equity. Scammers know this and design schemes to drain all of it. The FTC has warned that "some people 60+ have reported emptying their bank accounts and even clearing out their 401ks" after scammers convinced them to move money to "keep it safe."

2. Many own their homes outright

A paid-off house is one of the most valuable things a person can own, and one of the easiest to steal on paper. "Older people are often at risk to be targeted," Jay Inwald of Legal Services NYC told AARP, because they more often own their homes outright. With no mortgage, there's no lender watching the title.

3. Trust is a weak point

Researchers who study elder fraud say older adults may keep talking to a scammer simply because they feel a connection with them. Knowledge also matters. A 2025 study of 672 adults aged 60 and older in Pittsburgh and New York found that people who scored higher on basic financial knowledge and numeracy were much less likely to fall for scams. That's encouraging, because those skills can be taught.

4. The brain changes before anyone notices

USC neuropsychologist Duke Han has found that a brain region called the entorhinal cortex was thinner in older adults who were more vulnerable to financial scams. That was true even in people with no signs of cognitive impairment. His research suggests that poor financial decisions can show up before memory problems do. Loneliness adds to the risk.

5. Shame keeps victims quiet

The FBI notes that fraud against seniors is often underreported because victims feel embarrassed or afraid. Every unreported case lets the scammer keep going, and some move on to the same victim's friends or neighbors.

6. AI makes it easier

The 2025 IC3 report included a section on AI for the first time. It counted more than 22,000 complaints in which AI was used as a tool in the fraud, with losses above $893 million across all ages. FBI officials in New York told CBS that in many cases AI is now being used to generate the calls, messages and voices victims hear.

The scams costing older adults the most

According to the IC3's 2025 figures for people 60 and older:

• Investment fraud: 16,926 complaints and $3.52 billion in losses, making it the costliest category.
• Cryptocurrency: involved in 42,271 complaints from older adults and $4.35 billion in losses. That's more than half of all reported elder fraud losses.
• Tech and customer support scams: 21,333 complaints and $1.04 billion lost.
• Romance and confidence scams: 10,188 complaints and $584 million lost.
• Government impersonation: 8,628 complaints and $413 million lost.

The FTC has described a pattern it calls "false alarm, real scam." Someone posing as your bank, a tech company or a government agency says your account has been hacked or your identity stolen. Then a second "official" offers to help by moving your money somewhere safe. Among older adults who lost $10,000 or more to these schemes in 2024, 41% said it started with a phone call. Cryptocurrency was the most common way they paid, and for losses over $100,000, bank transfers were.

The scam you don't hear about: deed theft

Most scams take money out of your accounts. Deed theft takes your house.

Michigan State University law professor Donovan McCarty explains how it works. A fraudster forges the owner's signature, sometimes the signature of someone who has died, and records a fake deed with the county. He says the usual targets are elderly owners, families dealing with inherited homes, and houses that look vacant or neglected.

Real cases show how simple it can be:

• In Washington, D.C., a man used fake driver's licenses to pose as two older homeowners who had paid off their mortgages. He transferred their deeds and sold the homes, netting more than $580,000 before he was caught and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
• In Queens, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the indictment of five people accused of stealing three homes from elderly owners. Prosecutors say they used forged licenses, Social Security cards and signatures, then sold the properties for more than $1 million. James called deed theft a "merciless crime."
• In New York City alone, the attorney general's office has recorded more than 3,400 deed theft complaints since 2014, AARP reported.

Many victims find out only when a tax bill stops coming, an eviction notice shows up, or a stranger knocks on the door claiming to own the house.

Steps that actually protect you

You don't need to become a fraud expert. A few habits will stop most of these schemes.

Hang up and call back. If someone calls about a problem with your account, end the call. Then dial a number you already know, such as the one on your card or statement. No real bank or government agency will ask you to move money to "protect" it.

Treat certain payment requests as a stop sign. Requests for cryptocurrency, a Bitcoin ATM, gift cards, a wire transfer or cash handed to a courier are signs of a scam.

Pick a family safe word. FBI officials recommend this to defeat voice-cloning calls. If "your grandson" calls in a panic and can't give the word, hang up and call him directly.

Watch for warning signs in loved ones. The FBI points to large or frequent withdrawals from bank or investment accounts. Also watch for sudden secrecy about money or a new online "friend" who needs help.

Report quickly. Speed matters. In 2025, the IC3's Financial Fraud Kill Chain handled 642 cases involving victims 60 and older, with $65.4 million in reported losses. It helped freeze about $32.9 million of that. Report at IC3.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and call your bank right away.

Keep an eye on your deed. Check your county's property records from time to time, especially for a parent's paid-off home, a vacant property, or a home in an estate. Better yet, have the records watched for you. That's why we built DeedLock. It monitors county property records around the clock and alerts you as soon as something is filed against your title. Cancelling it requires identity verification, so a scammer posing as you can't turn it off.

The bottom line

Older adults don't get hit hardest because they're careless. Scammers target them on purpose: they have savings and paid-off homes, they tend to trust people, and they're less likely to report a crime. The fix is attention, both from families who talk openly about scams and from tools that catch fraud early.

Protect your home, or the home of someone you love, before it gets sold or borrowed against. Start your DeedLock coverage today at goldpatrons.com.