The 5 Scams Costing Older Adults the Most, According to the FBI

Adults aged 60 and over reported $7.748 billion in losses to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025. That is about 59 percent more than in 2024. Just last week, the Federal Trade Commission told Congress that its own numbers for older adults are five times higher than in 2020. Most victims never report, so the true cost is far larger.

Adults 60 and over filed 201,266 complaints with the FBI in 2025, a 37 percent rise on the year before. On October 19, 2026, the FTC sent its annual report on older adults to Congress. It found that people 60 and over reported about $3 billion in fraud losses to the FTC alone in 2025. Because so few victims come forward, the FTC estimates the real cost was somewhere between $13.3 billion and $119.5 billion.

This guide ranks the five scams that cost older adults the most in the FBI's data, adds what the FTC and other agencies found in 2026, and shows what each scam looks like when it reaches you. At the end, you will find the exact steps to take if you or a parent has already lost money.

Older adult fraud by the numbers

Before we look at each scam, it helps to see how big the problem is. These figures come from the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report and the FTC's 2025-2026 report to Congress. They count only what people reported, so the real totals are higher.

Older adults filed 20 percent of all FBI complaints (201,266 of 1,008,597) but accounted for 37 percent of all reported dollars lost ($7.748 billion of $20.877 billion). The average loss for this group was almost twice the average across all ages.

The five costliest categories add up to $6.1 billion, about 79 percent of everything adults 60 and over reported losing.

Why the FBI and FTC numbers are different

The FBI's IC3 reports $7.748 billion in losses for adults 60 and over. The FTC's Consumer Sentinel network shows about $3 billion. These are two separate databases. They collect reports from different people, sort scams in different ways, and overlap. Do not add them together. Both are undercounts, which is why the FTC estimates the true cost at $13.3 billion to $119.5 billion.

Fraud is also quiet. Many people feel embarrassed and say nothing. Others never realize they were scammed. The FBI's Operation Level Up found that 78 percent of crypto investment fraud victims it contacted in 2025 did not know they were being scammed.

The 5 scams that cost older adults the most

Here is a quick look at the five scams, ranked by dollars lost in the FBI's 2025 data. The next section explains how each one works and what stops it.

How each scam works, and the check that stops it

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. There were 16,926 complaints, which works out to roughly $208,000 lost per complaint (our calculation from the report's totals).

The FTC's separate data points the same way. Older adults' reported losses to investment scams jumped 42 percent in 2025 to more than $1 billion, far above any other fraud type, and scammers often reach them on social media. Among older adults' losses on scams that started on social media, investment fraud made up 56 percent of the dollars.

Cryptocurrency is the thread running through it:

• Crypto was involved in $4.35 billion of older adults' losses, 56 percent of the total.
• Crypto investment fraud: adults 60 and over filed 13,685 complaints with $2.76 billion in losses, more than any other age group.
• Crypto ATMs and kiosks: this age group accounted for 6,188 of the 13,460 complaints and about $257 million of the $389 million lost.

The IC3 report describes how these scams run. Contact starts with a text, a social media message, an ad or a dating app, then moves quickly to a private messaging app. Victims are introduced to "investment groups" led by supposed insiders. A fake platform shows growing profits, and victims may even be offered loans to invest more. When they try to withdraw, they are told to pay taxes and fees first. Then the scammers disappear.

Many victims are then targeted a second time by "recovery" firms. Adults 60 and over filed 2,529 recovery scam complaints with $540 million in losses, and those figures can include money lost in the original scam.

What changed in 2026: the Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force, created in November 2025 to go after Southeast Asian scam compounds, announced in April 2026 that it had restrained more than $700 million in cryptocurrency tied to these schemes. Separately, the FBI's Operation Level Up notified 3,780 crypto investment fraud victims in 2025, and 78 percent of them did not know they were being scammed. For many people, a call from the FBI is the first sign.

2. Tech support scams: $1.04 billion

Tech support losses among older adults passed a billion dollars for the first time, reaching $1.041 billion in 2025 across 21,333 complaints. The year before it was $982 million. The FTC has also found that adults 60 and over are far more likely than younger adults to report losing money to a tech support scam, and that gift cards are the payment method older adults most often report.

The script is familiar: a pop-up with a fake virus warning and a phone number, or a call claiming to be Microsoft or Apple. Then remote access, fake proof of infection and a bill. In September 2026 the FTC announced that payment processor Nuvei would pay $4.85 million to settle charges that it kept processing payments for merchants it knew or should have known were deceptive. The FTC said that included Reimage, an offshore tech support operation for which Nuvei processed more than $30 million in consumer payments from 2017 to 2023. The money is to be used for consumer refunds.

Tech support calls also lead to bigger thefts. The FBI describes "gold courier" scams, where tech support or government impersonators send a courier to collect cash or precious metals from the victim. It received about 725 of these complaints in 2025 (all ages) with $311.8 million in losses. It also tracked about 4,700 account takeover complaints with $359.7 million in losses, where scammers pose as a bank's support team. Our guide to the gold bar scam covers how couriers are used.

3. Confidence and romance scams: $584 million

Older adults reported $584 million lost to confidence and romance fraud in 2025, up 50 percent from $389 million in 2024. There were 10,188 complaints, about $57,000 each on average (our calculation).

These take the longest and hurt the most. Contact can run for months before money is mentioned, and by then the relationship feels real to the victim. The FTC found older adults were 48 percent more likely than younger adults to report losing money to a romance scam. In the FTC's own data, older adults reported $384 million in romance scam losses in 2025.

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 same tools that make scams more convincing show up here. The FBI's report says scammers use AI chat tools to write believable scripts and fake profiles. Victims reported over $19 million lost to confidence and romance scams with a likely AI link, and more than $5 million to "distress" scams, where a cloned voice imitates a relative in trouble. Our guide to AI voice clone scams explains how little audio it takes.

4. Business email compromise: $568 million

This is the category most people have never heard of. Business email compromise (BEC) cost adults 60 and over $568 million, up from $385 million in 2024. There were 4,566 complaints, around $124,000 each (our calculation). The FBI notes that its 60+ BEC counts can include people reporting on behalf of a business, so not every case is personal.

The pattern is a hijacked or imitated email from someone you trust, such as a title company, lawyer, contractor or financial adviser, with "updated" wire instructions. It tends to appear when large sums move: buying or selling a home, settling an estate, paying for a big repair.

5. Government impersonation: $413 million

Government impersonation cost adults 60 and over $413 million in the FBI's data, almost exactly double the $208 million of 2024, across 8,628 complaints (about $48,000 each, our calculation). Older adults filed about 27 percent of all government impersonation complaints in 2025 but accounted for about 52 percent of the losses.

The FTC's numbers point to the same trend. For older adults, government impersonation ranked second in dollars lost in the FTC's data ($448 million), followed by business impersonation ($422 million), where bank impersonators led. The FTC says the line between the two is blurring, because many scammers pose as a bank, then the FTC, then the FBI, in a single scam. Older adults accounted for 92 percent of reported losses to scammers posing as the FTC, 85 percent for Social Security impersonators and 75 percent for FBI impersonators.

The new twist in 2026: in a September 17 public service announcement, the FBI said it received nearly 61,000 complaints about law enforcement and government impersonation between January 2025 and July 2026, with losses above $1.6 billion, or about $26,000 per complaint (our calculation). The FBI says scammers now spoof real phone numbers, emails and credentials, and use AI tools to appear as officials on video calls. The FBI's Newark office added that scammers have used the names of real federal agents and, in some cases, set up fake FBI-style offices on camera.

The FTC says people in these scams are directed to wire money, mail cash, hand cash to couriers, buy gift cards or deposit cash into Bitcoin ATMs, and are often coached on what to tell bank staff and told not to talk to family. Real agencies do none of this. Social Security says it will never ask for gift cards or cash, threaten arrest, or demand immediate payment.

What a "keep your money safe" call sounds like

Government and bank impersonation calls follow one script more than any other. The caller sounds calm and helpful, then moves you quickly toward moving your money. Below is a typical call, built from patterns the FTC and Social Security describe. The words change, but the order almost never does.

This is a composite example, not a recording or transcript of a real call. Notice that the caller objects when you offer to call back. A real bank or agency never minds.

What changed in the last 12 months

Law enforcement has been busy, and the scams have been changing too. Here is a short timeline of the developments that matter most for older adults.

1. November 2025The Justice Department launches the Scam Center Strike Force to go after Southeast Asian scam compounds that target Americans.
2. April 2026The FBI publishes its 2025 Internet Crime Report, with the first year of data on AI-related complaints. The Strike Force announces more than $700 million in cryptocurrency restrained.
3. September 4, 2026The FTC announces a $4.85 million settlement with payment processor Nuvei over tech support scam payments.
4. September 17, 2026The FBI warns that impersonators are spoofing real numbers and using AI on video calls. Nearly 61,000 complaints and over $1.6 billion in losses since January 2025.
5. October 19, 2026The FTC sends Congress its report on older adults: about $3 billion in reported losses in 2025, five times the 2020 figure.

The most reported scam is not one of the five

Phishing and spoofing was the most reported crime type for adults 60 and over, with 48,064 complaints, almost a quarter of everything they filed. But it cost $77 million, far less than the five above, which is why it is not on the list.

It matters anyway because it is the volume category, the one almost everyone sees, and often the first step toward a bigger loss. A phishing message that captures your email password gives an attacker the reset link for every other account you own. Never click a link in a message about an account, and turn on two-factor authentication for your email first.

What changed with AI in 2025 and 2026

2025 was the first year the FBI tracked AI as a tag on complaints. Across all ages there were 22,364 AI-related complaints and roughly $893 million in losses. For people over 60, AI-related complaints numbered 3,143 and losses were about $352 million. Most of the all-age total, $632 million, was in investment scams, where AI helps scammers run thousands of conversations at once and produce fake videos of celebrities and executives.

The FBI also warns that these totals are likely too low. They count only complaints where the victim noticed or mentioned AI, and many victims never find out.

Older adults are not "more gullible"

The FTC's data pushes back on that idea. In 2025, older adults reported losing money to fraud at a 14 percent lower rate than adults 18 to 59, and they filed reports about scams they spotted and avoided at a 34 percent higher rate. About 74 percent of older adults' fraud reports involved no loss at all.

The difference is how much goes wrong when a scam does work. Adults 60 and over were more than twice as likely as younger adults to report a loss of $100,000 or more, once population size is taken into account. Those six-figure reports rose from 1,136 in 2020 to 6,769 in 2025. FBI officials have said scammers target older adults because they may have retirement savings, are more likely to answer calls and engage with strangers, and can be isolated or lonely. The longer scammers keep a person talking, the better their odds, which is why ending the conversation is the best defense.

A real case: how a freeze saved $1.3 million

One case in the FBI's report shows why speed matters. In March 2025 a Missouri senior was closing on a property when an email from a supposed title company gave wire instructions for more than $1.3 million. The email was fake. The FBI's Recovery Asset Team froze the receiving account in time.

Most victims are not so lucky. Across all of its 2025 cases, the team started freeze requests in 3,900 incidents and froze $679 million of the $1.16 billion at stake. For victims 60 and over, it froze about half: $32.9 million of $65.4 million. The team initiated 104 freeze requests for BEC and real estate cases involving people over 60. The lesson is simple. Money can often be stopped, but only in the first hours and days, and only if it is still sitting in the receiving account.

Red flags that show up in all five scams

• They contacted you first. A call, text, pop-up, social media message or "wrong number" you did not ask for.
• They want you to move money to keep it safe. To a "safe account," a crypto wallet, a courier or a Bitcoin ATM.
• They want secrecy. "Do not tell the bank, do not tell your family, this is confidential."
• They want an unusual payment. Gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency, cash handed to a courier.
• They create a deadline. "Your account will be emptied in an hour" or "the investment window closes today."
• They rely on proof you cannot check. Caller ID, a badge number, a real agent's name, an official-looking video call. All of it can be faked.
• They object to you hanging up. If a caller objects to you calling back on a number you already have, you have your answer.

Real contact vs scam: side by side

Protect yourself before the call comes

1. Agree on a family rule. No one moves money or shares codes because of a call, text or video call they did not start. Choose a family code word for real emergencies.
2. Verify on a number you already have. Use the number on your bank card or the agency's official website. Never use a number the caller or email gives you.
3. Slow down any large transfer. Ask your bank about transaction alerts and a trusted contact on your account.
4. Protect your email first. Turn on two-factor authentication. Your email controls the reset link for almost every other account.
5. Never allow remote access to your computer. No real company needs it from a pop-up or a cold call.
6. Stay away from crypto ATMs. No real agency, bank or business will ask you to deposit cash into one.
7. Check before you trust. Look up any phone number, website or email in our robocall checker before you reply.

If you have already lost money, do this now

Do not feel embarrassed. These scams are run by organized groups, and speed matters more than anything else.

1. Stop all contact with the scammer. Do not send more money, even if they say it will release what you already sent.
2. Call your bank now on the number on your card, and ask for a recall of the transfer. Time is critical.
3. File at ic3.gov, whatever the amount, and include full transaction details. This is what lets the FBI ask banks to freeze money, and it only works while the funds are still in the receiving account.
4. Report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
5. Call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-372-8311 (1-833-FRAUD-11). It is run by the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime for people 60 and over, and a case manager helps you report and find next steps. It is open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. More at justice.gov/stopelderfraud.
6. Protect your identity. If personal data was shared, start a recovery plan at IdentityTheft.gov and consider a free credit freeze.
7. Keep every record. Save call logs, texts, emails, receipts and crypto transaction details. You will need them for reports.

Our page on the first 48 hours after a scam covers the bank conversation in detail. You can also report the number to us. Your report helps the next person who looks it up.

Frequently asked questions

 How we researched this article

This guide is based on the original reports where we could open them. Figures for adults 60 and over come from the FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report. FTC figures come from its report Protecting Older Consumers 2025-2026 (sent to Congress October 19, 2026) and the accompanying press release. Government impersonation figures come from the FBI IC3 public service announcement of September 17, 2026 and the FBI IC3 2025 report. The Nuvei settlement is from the FTC's September 2026 announcement. The Scam Center Strike Force figures are from the Justice Department's April 2026 announcement. Hotline hours are from the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime. Percent changes, shares and "per complaint" averages marked as our calculation were computed from the totals in those reports. The FBI and FTC figures overlap and should not be added together. FTC reporting also paused from October 1 to November 13, 2025, because of a funding lapse. The sample call is a composite example, not a recording. Figures were checked on October 26, 2026. We are not affiliated with the FBI, the FTC, the Social Security Administration or any financial institution, and this article is not legal or financial advice. If you have lost money, contact your bank and the agencies listed above right away.