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Scammers are draining seniors’ life savings at staggering rates, a new Federal Trade Commission report shows, with older Americans reporting about four times more in fraud losses in 2024 than in 2020.
Main findings from the FTC’s Protecting Older Consumers 2024-2025 report show that reported fraud losses for adults 60 and older exploded, with about $2.4 billion lost to scams in 2024 — up from about $600 million in 2020.
However, the FTC warns that the real losses are far higher due to underreporting, with the agency estimating that the overall cost of fraud to older adults in 2024 was between $10.1 billion and $81.5 billion, depending on methodology.
Large, devastating losses exceeding $100,000 are reportedly driving the surge, with combined losses reported by older adults who lost more than $100,000 increasing more than five-fold from 2020 to 2024. These large-loss cases account for about 68% of all aggregate reported dollars lost by older Americans.
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“The FTC’s latest report details the agency’s commitment to protecting older Americans from scams that rob them of their hard-earned money,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The FTC is doing everything possible to protect older adults and shut down illegal scams.”
The report also found that social media has become the top pipeline for scammers, with older adults now reporting losing more money to scams initiated on social media than to those that begin through any other contact method. Reported losses via social platforms have increased nearly ninefold since 2020, with a focus on cryptocurrency and romance fraud.
Although social media is the top contact method by total dollars lost, scams that begin with a phone call produce the highest median reported loss at $2,210, compared to $650 for social-media-initiated incidents.
Tech support, sweepstakes-lottery and government impersonation scams hit older Americans disproportionately, the FTC notes, but investment schemes are now the most financially damaging among seniors, with about $744 million in reported losses by adults 60 and over in 2024.
Additionally, FTC staff outreach and consumer complaints indicate that impersonation scammers exploit seniors’ trust in authority — often posing as FTC officials, banks or law enforcement to pressure older adults into quickly transferring funds.
To avoid falling victim, the AARP notes that most fraud starts with three red flags: an unexpected contact, a surge of emotion and a sense of urgency. Its Fraud Watch Network advises taking an “active pause” when these signs arise, to allow time to process what’s happening.
AARP also offers a resource center where possible victims can look up previously reported scams, access a tracking map and find other tips to help avoid financial fraud. Similarly, the FTC distributed nearly 1.7 million Pass It On educational items in FY 2025, aimed at helping older adults share fraud-prevention tips within their communities.
“The FTC protects older adults through aggressive law enforcement and broad outreach and education,” the report’s conclusion states. “The FTC will continue to seek new ways to prevent harm to older adults through its ongoing collaboration with a variety of government and private stakeholders.”
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