Summary
Reports of older adults losing over $100,000 to scams have tripled since 2020, per the FTC, with 4,600 cases in 2023 compared to 1,300 in 2020.
Older Americans lost $1.9 billion to fraud last year, with the actual losses likely closer to $62 billion due to underreporting.
Common scams include romance, investment (notably fake cryptocurrency), and imposter scams. The psychological and financial toll is severe, especially for retirees.
Experts urge vigilance against red flags like urgent demands, social isolation tactics, and unusual payment requests like gift cards or cryptocurrency.
it doesn’t matter how many times you tell them not to click/tap on every goddamn thing that pops up on the screen, and/or call every phone number it tells you to call because “you have a virus!!! CALL THIS NUMBER RIGHT NOWWWWW”
next time you open their device: 99 tabs open, hundreds of notifications, dozens and dozens of new bloatware/spyware/malware/bullshit searchbar apps, etc etc