"Scammers Stole More Than $3.4 Billion From Older Americans Last Year, an FBI Report Says"
According to the FBI, scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year. Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before. The FBI is warning of a rise in bold schemes to drain bank accounts that involve sending couriers in person to collect cash or gold from victims. Deputy Assistant Director James Barnacle of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division stated that it can have a devastating impact on older Americans who lack the ability to go out and make money. Barnacle noted that people lose all their money, and some people become destitute. The FBI received more than 100,000 complaints by victims of scams over the age of 60 last year, with nearly 6,000 people losing more than $100,000. Barnacle stated that investigators are seeing organized, transnational criminal enterprises targeting older Americans through a variety of schemes, like romance scams and investment frauds. Barnacle noted that the most commonly reported fraud among older adults last year was tech support scams, in which criminals pose over the phone as technical or customer service representatives. In one such scam, rising in popularity, criminals impersonate technology, banking, and government officials to convince victims that foreign hackers have infiltrated their bank accounts and instruct them that to protect their money, they should move it to a new account one secretly controlled by the scammers. Between May and December, the FBI saw an uptick in scammers using live couriers to take money from victims duped into believing their accounts had been compromised. In those cases, scammers tell victims that their bank accounts have been hacked and that they need to liquidate their assets into cash or buy gold or other precious metals to protect their funds. Then, the fraudsters arrange for a courier to pick it up in person. Barnacle noted that a lot of fraud schemes ask victims to send money via wire transfer or cryptocurrency transfer. The staggering losses to older Americans are likely an undercount. Only about half of the more than 880,000 complaints reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Compliance Center last year included information on the age of the victim.