The 5 Costliest Scams Hitting Older Adults: 2026 FBI Data
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center published its 2025 annual report in April 2026, and the section on older adults is the clearest picture available of where the money is actually going.
Adults aged 60 and over filed 201,266 complaints and reported $7.7 billion in losses in 2025, according to the FBI. Complaints rose 37 percent on 2024. Losses rose 59 percent.
Two numbers underneath that total matter more than the headline:
- The average reported loss was more than $38,000. Almost twice the average across all age groups.
- At least 12,400 people over 60 lost $100,000 or more each.
Older adults filed about 20 percent of all complaints but accounted for 37 percent of all money lost. This article covers the five categories that did the most damage, ranked by dollars, and what each one actually looks like when it reaches you.
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1. Investment fraud: $3.52 billion
Investment scams cost people over 60 $3.519 billion in 2025, up from $1.834 billion the year before. That is a 92 percent increase in twelve months, and it is nearly half of all elder fraud losses on its own.
Most of it involves cryptocurrency and fake trading platforms. The pattern usually runs like this:
- Contact begins on social media, a dating app, or an unexpected text that looks like a wrong number
- A relationship or friendship develops over weeks, with no mention of money
- An investment opportunity comes up naturally, often crypto
- A professional looking platform shows your balance rising
- Withdrawal requires a fee, then a tax, then a compliance payment
The balance on the screen was never real. The FTC has noted that consumers of all ages report social media as the most common first contact point for investment scams.
The check that works: anyone who contacts you first about an investment is not offering you one. Verify any firm through FINRA BrokerCheck before sending a cent.
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2. Tech support scams: $1.04 billion
Tech support losses among older adults crossed a billion dollars for the first time, reaching $1.041 billion in 2025.
The FTC has separately found that adults 60 and over are more than five times as likely as adults aged 18 to 59 to report losing money this way.
It starts with a call claiming to be Microsoft or Apple, or a full screen pop-up giving a support number. Then remote access, fake evidence of infection, and a bill.
The check that works: a real error message never contains a phone number. If a number appears on your screen, the message is fake. Our full guide to fake Microsoft support calls covers the whole script.
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3. Confidence and romance scams: $584 million
Older adults reported $584 million lost to confidence and romance fraud in 2025.
These take the longest and hurt the most. Contact can run for months before money is mentioned, and by then the relationship feels genuine to the victim, because in every way that matters to them it is.
The requests escalate in a familiar order: a phone bill, a medical emergency, customs fees on a package, then an investment the person wants to share with you. That last step is where romance fraud and investment fraud merge, and where the largest losses happen.
The check that works: someone who will not video call, or who always has a reason the camera failed, is not who they say they are. Reverse image search their photos.
4. Government and business impersonation
The FTC recorded more than 330,000 government impersonation complaints in 2025, a 25 percent rise, as confirmed by the Social Security Administration. Social Security remains one of the most impersonated agencies in the country.
Business impersonation runs alongside it. Someone calls claiming to be your bank's fraud department, or Amazon about an order you did not place.
Both rely on the same three steps: a problem you did not know about, a deadline, and a payment method that cannot be reversed.
The check that works: hang up and call back on a number you already have. Not the number that called, not the number in the email. Our guide to Social Security scams covers the six current versions.
5. Phishing and spoofing
Phishing was one of the top three most reported crime types among older adults, though individual losses tend to be smaller than the categories above.
That combination is why it matters. It is the volume category, the one nearly everyone encounters, and often the first step towards a larger loss. A phishing email that captures your email password gives an attacker the reset link for every other account you own.
The check that works: never click a link in a message about an account. Open the app or type the address yourself. Turn on two factor authentication for your email before anything else.
What AI changed in 2025
The IC3 report included a section on artificial intelligence for the first time. Across all ages there were 22,364 AI related complaints and roughly $893 million in losses. For people over 60 specifically, AI related losses came to about $352 million.
Distress scams, where a cloned voice imitates a relative in trouble, accounted for more than $5 million in reported losses in 2025 on their own.
The FBI notes an important limitation in this data: these figures only count cases where the victim realised AI was involved. The real total is higher, because most people never find out.
Why older adults lose more per incident
The FBI gives three reasons, and none of them is about competence.
There is more to take. Retirement savings, home equity, and pension income mean a single successful scam pays far better than one aimed at someone in their twenties.
Isolation creates openings. The FBI notes that older victims may be driven by loneliness to communicate with strangers. Romance and confidence scams are built entirely on this.
Answering is a habit. Older adults are more likely to engage with unsolicited calls, texts, and emails. That single habit is the doorway for most of the categories above.
The one habit that covers all five
Every scam in this list needs you to act inside the same conversation that started it.
So break the conversation. End the call, close the message, and check independently using a number or an app you already had. Investment offers, tech support, bank alerts, government notices, all of them survive a pause and none of them survive verification.
If a caller objects to you hanging up and calling back, you already have your answer.
If you have already lost money
- Call your bank now on the number on your card. Wire transfers can sometimes be recalled within the first 24 to 72 hours.
- File at ic3.gov. This activates the IC3 Recovery Asset Team, which can request a freeze on the receiving account. It only works while the money is still there.
- Report to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
- If personal data was shared, start a recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov.
Our page on the first 48 hours after a scam covers the bank conversation in detail.
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