Elder Financial Scams: How the Big-Loss Ones Actually Work

The scams that take the largest sums from older adults are not built on confusion. They're built on vigilance. Someone calls about suspicious activity on your account, or your Social Security number turning up in a criminal case, or a virus on your computer — and the more seriously you take protecting your money, the further into the script you go.

The FTC put it in almost those words in a 2025 analysis: these scams "prey on older adults' vigilance about protecting their money and identity to steal from them." It's worth sitting with that, because the reflex to explain elder fraud by pointing at the victim gets the mechanism exactly backwards.

The scale, and why the losses are so large

Younger people lose money to imposters too. What's different is the size. From 2020 to 2024, the number of reports from older adults losing $10,000 or more to business and government imposter scams rose more than fourfold — 1,790 reports in 2020, 8,269 in 2024. Reports of losses over $100,000 rose nearly sevenfold in the same period, and the combined dollars reported went up eightfold.

The FTC's explanation of why is the important sentence: when people believe they're fixing a problem rather than sending a stranger money, their losses are often limited only by their available funds. That's the difference between a scam that costs $400 and one that takes a 401(k). There's no natural stopping point, because at no moment does it feel like spending.

Across all ages, imposter scams cost people more than $3.5 billion in 2025, with about $920 million of that going to people impersonating the government.

The three opening lies

Nearly all of the high-loss versions start with one of three claims, sometimes stacked:

1. Someone is using your accounts. Usually a fake bank fraud alert, sometimes a fake message about an unauthorized purchase from a large retailer.
2. Your information is being used to commit crimes. A supposed government officer says your Social Security number is linked to drug smuggling, money laundering, or worse. The accusation is designed to be so alarming you won't repeat it to anyone.
3. There's a security problem with your computer. A full-screen pop-up styled like a Microsoft or Apple warning, with a phone number to call. Real security warnings never include a phone number, which is the one thing worth memorizing about pop-ups.

Then the handoff. Tech support "discovers" your accounts have been hacked, and transfers you to someone who works for the government. Badge number, case number, both invented. He says your money is at risk and has to be protected right now — withdraw it, deposit it in a "federal safety locker," convert it to gold, hand it to a courier who will come to your house.

There is no federal safety locker. No government agency will ever tell you to move money to protect it, and none will accept payment in cash or gold. The FTC says this about itself explicitly, because scammers impersonate the FTC — sometimes using the names of real staff.

Everything still ends up on the phone

Even when the setup is a pop-up or an email, the goal is a phone call. In 2024, among older adults reporting losses of $10,000 or more to a business or government imposter, 41% said the first contact was a phone call, 15% an online ad or pop-up, and 13% an email — and the pop-up cases almost all describe a number to call.

The call is the delivery mechanism for two things a text can't do: sustained urgency, and containment. Staying on the line keeps you from talking to a spouse, a neighbor, or a teller who has seen this before.

Payment methods follow a pattern too. In those same 2024 reports, 33% paid in cryptocurrency — usually through a Bitcoin ATM at a gas station or convenience store — 20% by bank transfer, and 16% in cash. Gold isn't even a category on the FTC's form, yet people wrote it in on about 5% of reports over $10,000 and about 21% of reports over $100,000. If a stranger on the phone has explained why you need to buy gold, you are in a scam. There is no second explanation.

The grandparent call

The family emergency version deserves separate treatment because it defeats the usual advice. A grandchild calls, panicked, from jail or a hospital or a car accident. Sometimes a "lawyer" or "officer" takes the phone to add authority. Pay now, by wire or gift card or cash to a courier — and please don't tell Mom.

The secrecy request is the tell, and the FTC flags it directly: scammers want it kept quiet so you don't call another family member and discover nobody is in trouble.

"But it sounded exactly like him" is no longer evidence. A short clip of someone's voice from a public video and a voice-cloning program is enough to produce a convincing call. The FTC's instruction is to not trust the voice on the line at all.

What to do instead, in order:

• Hang up, or say you'll call right back. That single sentence ends most of these.
• Call the family member on the number you already have for them.
• If you can't reach them, call someone else in the family — even if the caller said to keep it secret, and especially then.
• If you don't feel able to hang up, ask something only the real person knows. What kind of dog do you have. Where were you last Thanksgiving.

The exploitation that isn't a stranger

Strangers on the phone get the coverage. A large share of elder financial exploitation is committed by someone with legitimate access — a family member holding a power of attorney, a court-appointed guardian or conservator, a paid caregiver, a trustee.

All of those roles are fiduciary roles. The person must act in the older adult's interest, manage the money and property carefully, keep the money separate from their own, and keep records. The CFPB publishes free Managing Someone Else's Money guides for each of the four roles — agent under a power of attorney, court-appointed guardian or conservator, trustee, and government fiduciary handling Social Security or VA benefits — and they're worth reading whether you hold the role or suspect someone who does.

Signs that the fiduciary relationship has gone wrong: accounts retitled into joint names, a new will or a new power of attorney signed during a period of confusion or hospitalization, funds mixed with the fiduciary's own, no records available on request, an older adult who suddenly can't afford things they could afford last year, or a family member who has cut off everyone else's access. Our guide to financial abuse warning signs and our power of attorney guide go deeper on both the prevention and the documentation.

Why the bank sometimes calls first

Bank staff frequently spot this before family does — an unusual cash withdrawal, a first-ever wire, a customer who won't say what the money is for while someone waits in the car.

Federal law makes it safer for them to act. The Senior Safe Act, codified at 12 U.S.C. 3423, gives immunity from civil and administrative liability to employees of covered financial institutions who report suspected exploitation of a senior citizen — defined as 65 or older — to a covered agency. It's conditional: the employee has to have received the required training, must be in a supervisory, compliance, or legal role (or be an affiliated registered representative, investment adviser representative, or insurance producer), and must report in good faith and with reasonable care. Covered institutions include banks, credit unions, broker-dealers, investment advisers, insurance companies and agencies, and transfer agents. Covered agencies include state financial and securities regulators, federal banking agencies, the SEC, and law enforcement.

Which means if a teller pushes back on a withdrawal, that's the statute working, not an insult. It's also why naming a trusted contact on your accounts is worth doing while nothing is wrong — it gives the institution someone to call.

Who to call

1. The bank or brokerage first, if money has moved or is about to. Speed is the only real lever.
2. Adult Protective Services in the state where the older adult lives. APS is the state and local program that receives and investigates reports of abuse, neglect, self-neglect, and financial exploitation. Have the person's name, address, and why you're concerned; most states accept anonymous reports.
3. The Eldercare Locator, 800-677-1116, if you don't know which APS office or agency covers a given address.
4. The National Elder Fraud Hotline, 833-372-8311, run by the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime, weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. You're assigned a case manager who stays with you through federal, state, and local reporting.
5. The FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and your state attorney general.

One thing not to do: don't lead with "how could you fall for this." It's the sentence that keeps people from telling anyone for another six months, and six months of silence is the scammer's best asset. There is a scam scripted for every one of us; these people run them full time and get better at it every year. Ask what happened, write down what you're told, and start making the calls above.