Fraud losses reported by older adults increased fivefold between 2020 and 2025, leaping from $600 million to $3 billion, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Monday (Oct. 19).
The FTC shared this data in a press release outlining findings from its report to Congress, “Protecting Older Consumers 2025-2026: A Report of the Federal Trade Commission.”
The growth in fraud losses reported by adults 60 or older was driven largely by a growing number of incidents involving “extraordinarily large individual losses,” the release said.
In its report to Congress, the FTC said: “This increase was largely driven by reports of losses over $100,000, often to investment scams, romance scams or impersonations.”
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While older adults report losing money to fraud at lower rates than younger adults, they are more likely to report losing money on certain forms of fraud. These include tech support scams; prize, sweepstakes and lottery scams; romance scams; government impersonation scams; and scams impersonating friends or family members, per the release.
PYMNTS reported in June 2024 that as more baby boomers and seniors went online to get their banking done, they became targets of fraudsters.
The FTC’s report also outlines the commission’s efforts to protect older adults from fraud. These efforts include law enforcement, outreach and education, efforts to monitor the market for emerging trends, and collaborations with stakeholders in public and private sectors.
“The FTC is committed to protecting older adults from scams, including by taking every action necessary to shut down fraud operations,” Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in the release.
PYMNTS reported in September that the House approved legislation aimed at giving state and local law enforcement more resources to investigate sophisticated financial scams targeting older consumers.
The GUARD Act would expand the ways law enforcement agencies can use existing federal grant funding to investigate financial fraud and would expressly authorize federal agencies to help those authorities deploy blockchain-tracing technology.
U .S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., who co-led the act, said in a September press release: “Every day, scammers are targeting our seniors, draining the hard-earned savings they spent a lifetime building, often with a single phone call or a fake investment scheme.”
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