Key takeaways

  • Fraud losses among older adults have nearly quadrupled since 2020. Adults aged 60 and over reported $2.4 billion in total fraud losses in 2024, up from $600 million in 2020, according to the FTC’s Protecting Older Consumers 2024-2025 report.
  • Investment scams cause the most financial damage. Older adults reported $744 million in losses to investment fraud in 2024, more than any other fraud category, per the FTC.
  • Tech support scams disproportionately affect older adults. Older adults are more than five times more likely than younger adults to report losing money to tech support scams, according to the FTC.
  • Impersonation scam losses among older adults have soared. Reports from adults 60 and over who lost $10,000 or more to impersonation scams increased more than 4x from 2020 to 2024, per FTC data.
  • Reporting matters even when no money was lost. Every report filed with the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network helps federal and local law enforcement identify active schemes.

Retirement represents something financial predators understand well: a concentration of accumulated savings, often in accessible accounts, held by people who are less likely to have daily oversight from an employer or financial advisor. That combination makes retirees a high-value target. According to the FTC’s Protecting Older Consumers 2024-2025 Report, total fraud losses reported by adults aged 60 and over reached $2.4 billion in 2024, a four-time increase from the $600 million reported in 2020. 

Because most fraud goes unreported, the FTC estimates that real losses could be substantially higher.  The FTC report estimates 2024 fraud costs against older adults at $10.1 billion to $81.5 billion. The exact number depends on how the underrepresentation of fraud is calculated, which the report further details.

Understanding the most common schemes is not just useful information. It is a practical form of protection. Each of the five scams described below has been documented by federal agencies as a significant and growing threat to older Americans, and each relies on a recognizable set of tactics that can be identified before harm occurs.

Photo Credit: Kate Farley

1. Social engineering and impersonation scams

The red flags: Unexpected contact demanding money to protect assets, pretending to be a bank or government agency, false emergencies and sense of urgency 

Social engineering is the practice of manipulating someone psychologically rather than technically to obtain money or personal information. In the context of retirement fraud, it most often takes the form of impersonation.

The FTC’s 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book identifies imposter scams as the most commonly reported fraud category overall. For older adults specifically, reports of those who lost $10,000 or more to government and business impersonation scams increased more than fourfold from 2020 to 2024, according to the FTC’s August 2025 data spotlight on impersonation scams. For losses over $100,000, reports increased nearly sevenfold, and combined losses went up eightfold. 

Go Further: The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network is a secure database available to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies nationwide. Every report filed, even one where no money changed hands, contributes to the pattern data investigators use to identify active schemes. Filing a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov takes less than ten minutes and can be done anonymously. If the fraud involved a financial product or investment, a parallel report through investor.gov puts the case in front of a second federal agency with enforcement authority over securities fraud.

These scams typically begin with an urgent, unexpected contact claiming to be from a trusted institution, such as a bank, the Social Security Administration, the IRS, Medicare, or even the FTC itself. The caller creates a false emergency, such as a frozen account, a suspended Social Security number, or a criminal investigation linked to the target’s identity, and then instructs the person to transfer money, purchase gift cards, or deposit cash into a Bitcoin ATM to resolve it.

The core tactic is to replace calm deliberation with urgent fear. The primary red flag is any unexpected contact demanding immediate transfer of funds to protect assets. No legitimate government agency or financial institution will ever ask for payment via gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency in response to an unsolicited call or message. The SSA’s fraud prevention page and the IRS Tax Scams page both confirm exactly what those agencies will and will never do when contacting the public.

2. The grandparent scam

The red flags: Pretending to be a distressed child, asking to wire money, using info from social media, using AI voice cloning

The grandparent scam is one of the most emotionally targeted forms of elder fraud. A caller poses as a grandchild in distress, typically claiming to have been arrested, injured in an accident, or stranded in a foreign country, and begs the grandparent to wire money immediately without telling anyone else in the family. The FTC’s grandkid and family scams page documents the mechanics precisely: scammers use personal information gathered from social media to make their stories convincing, and they apply time pressure specifically to prevent the target from pausing to verify.

The scam has grown more sophisticated with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) voice cloning, a technology that can generate a convincing replica of a specific person’s voice from just a few seconds of audio gathered from a social media video or voicemail. The FTC formally warned in 2023 that scammers are deploying this technology to impersonate grandchildren directly. 

The Federal Communications Commission has also issued a warning on this development, noting that AI voice cloning has materially increased the believability of these calls. The most effective countermeasure is simple: hang up and independently dial a known number for the family member before taking any action.

3. Phishing and investment fraud

The red flags: Suspicious links, asking for personal activity, promising guaranteed wins with no risk, asking for money transfers

Phishing refers to fraudulent communications designed to appear legitimate, most commonly through email, text, or social media, that trick recipients into revealing account credentials, Social Security numbers, or financial information. For retirees, phishing is most often the entry point to a larger investment fraud scheme.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, in a joint investor alert issued with FINRA and NASAA, warned that fraudsters are increasingly using AI-generated content alongside phishing techniques to promote fake investment platforms, often centered on cryptocurrency. These schemes promise high guaranteed returns with little or no risk, two features the alert identifies as classic red flags of fraud. 

The SEC also warns investors to verify any investment professional’s registration before transferring funds, since impersonators routinely copy the names and credentials of licensed advisors. Before engaging with any investment professional or platform, registration can be checked for free through the SEC’s IAPD database for registered investment advisers, or through FINRA BrokerCheck for registered broker-dealers. Investment scams generated $744 million in reported losses among older adults in 2024, more than any other single fraud category, per the FTC report cited above.

4. Tech support scams

The red flags: Suspicious popups warning of infections, having to call to “remove” the virus, and giving them personal information

Tech support scams follow a predictable pattern. A pop-up alert appears on a computer warning that the device has been infected or compromised, and provides a phone number to call for immediate assistance. The person who answers is a fraudster who uses remote access to steal financial account information, install malicious software, or convince the target to pay for unnecessary services.

According to the FTC’s Protecting Older Consumers 2024-2025 report, older adults reported $159 million in losses to tech support scams in 2024 and are more than five times more likely than younger adults to report losing money to this type of fraud. The scam has also evolved into a gateway for the impersonation fraud described above: after gaining the target’s trust as a technical helper, the fraudster may transfer the call to a supposed government official who warns of a larger financial threat, escalating both the pressure and the potential loss. A real technology company will never send an unsolicited pop-up requesting a phone call, and legitimate support services do not demand immediate payment via wire transfer or gift card.

5. Romance and relationship investment scams

The red flags: Never meeting the person in real life, using emotional pleas to ask for money after weeks or months of interactions

Romance scams involve a fraudster building a long-term online relationship with a target, often over weeks or months, before introducing a financial request. The FTC’s Protecting Older Consumers report identifies romance scams as one of the fraud types most disproportionately reported by older adults compared to younger ones.

A specific and growing variant is the relationship investment scam, sometimes called pig butchering, in which the fraudster uses a romantic or friendly relationship to introduce what appears to be a lucrative investment opportunity, typically in cryptocurrency. 

The SEC charged multiple individuals in 2024 in connection with two such schemes involving fake trading platforms called NanoBit and CoinW6, in which fraudsters recruited victims via social media and directed them to platforms where funds were misappropriated. The defining characteristic of these scams is a combination of emotional intimacy and financial urgency introduced gradually over time, specifically to bypass the skepticism a cold financial pitch would trigger.

Reporting to the FTC

Reporting matters even when money was not lost. Every report filed contributes to the FTC’s pattern recognition across thousands of cases, which is how federal investigators identify active schemes and build prosecutable files. Fraud and scam incidents can be reported directly at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Reports can be submitted anonymously. Investment fraud can also be reported to the SEC at investor.gov. Local law enforcement should be notified separately, particularly if cash or valuables were handed to someone in person.

How an advisor can help

A financial advisor acts as a professional gatekeeper, providing a critical layer of defense between hard-earned assets and increasingly sophisticated fraudsters. Beyond just managing portfolios, they establish a “trust but verify” protocol, serving as a mandatory checkpoint for significant transactions or unusual requests that might otherwise bypass intuition during a high-pressure moment. Advisors are trained to recognize red flags, such as “guaranteed” high returns, offshore wire requests or urgent demands for personal information. They can also cross-reference suspicious opportunities against regulatory databases like FINRA or the SEC. 

Common questions about scams 

What should someone do immediately if they suspect they have been targeted by a retirement scam? 

Stop all contact with the suspected scammer and avoid sending any additional money or information. Contact the relevant financial institution directly using a phone number from an official statement or the institution’s official website, not one provided by the caller. File a report with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and, if investment fraud is involved, with the SEC at investor.gov. Local law enforcement should also be notified, particularly if cash or valuables have been handed to someone in person.

How do scammers obtain enough personal information to make their approaches convincing? 

Scammers draw from several sources simultaneously. Social media profiles frequently contain names, family relationships, locations, and life events that can be used to personalize a script. Data brokers sell aggregated personal information. Previous data breaches have made email addresses, phone numbers, and partial financial information widely available. The FTC specifically notes that scammers mine social media to construct believable grandparent scam narratives, and the SEC has documented cases where fraudsters copied the names, photos, and registration numbers of real licensed advisors to build credibility.

Are there universal warning signs that apply across all of these scams? 

Several red flags appear consistently across every category documented here. Urgency is the most reliable signal: legitimate institutions do not demand immediate action before a person can think or consult others. Any request for payment via gift card, wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or cash handed to a courier is a near-certain indicator of fraud, as confirmed by the FTC. Unsolicited contact from someone claiming to be from a government agency or financial institution, particularly one warning of a problem requiring immediate money movement, should be treated with caution, regardless of how official it appears.

Glossary

  • Artificial intelligence (AI) voice cloning: A technology that uses AI to generate a synthetic replica of a specific person’s voice from a short audio sample. Scammers have used this technique to impersonate grandchildren and other family members in emergency fraud schemes, as documented by the FTC and FCC.
  • Consumer Sentinel Network: A secure database maintained by the FTC that aggregates fraud and scam reports from consumers and makes them available to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
  • Grandparent scam: A fraud in which a scammer impersonates a grandchild or other family member in a fake emergency, typically requesting immediate cash, wire transfers, or gift cards while urging the victim to keep the situation secret from other family members.
  • Investment fraud: A broad category of financial scams in which victims are deceived into placing money into fake or misrepresented investment vehicles. Common forms include fake cryptocurrency platforms, Ponzi schemes, and relationship investment scams.
  • Phishing: Fraudulent communications, typically via email, text, or social media, designed to appear legitimate to trick recipients into disclosing personal information, account credentials, or financial data.
  • Pig butchering: A form of relationship investment scam in which a fraudster builds a romantic or friendly relationship with a target over time before introducing a fake investment opportunity, most commonly involving cryptocurrency.
  • Romance scam: A fraud in which a scammer establishes a false romantic relationship, typically online, to build emotional trust before soliciting money or introducing a fraudulent investment opportunity.
  • Social engineering: The use of psychological manipulation rather than technical means to convince a person to reveal confidential information, transfer money, or take actions that serve the scammer’s interests.
  • Tech support scam: A fraud in which a scammer poses as a technical support representative, typically triggered by a fake pop-up alert, to gain remote access to a device or convince the victim to pay for unnecessary services.

Sources

Disclaimer: Steady Retire and MediaFeed are providers of educational content and information. This article is intended for informational and illustrative purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. The information provided does not create a professional-client relationship and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, or attorney. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, rules and regulations regarding retirement are subject to change. Always consult with a certified professional regarding your specific financial situation.