Security Corner Blog

Commonly known as "elder fraud," financial crimes against seniors totaled $3.4 billion in 2023, up from $3.1 billion in 2022, according to the FBI's 2023 "Elder Fraud Report." And those are just the scams that get reported. The vast majority of them—whether because it’s a small amount of money or the victims feel ashamed and don’t want anyone to know—go unreported.

Here are some critical steps you can take to help keep vulnerable older adults from being cheated out of their savings.

Use Technology to Your Advantage

Online scammers often target younger people, while older adults are more likely to answer the phone, opening the door to telephone scams. A good first step is tackling their phone settings to set up barriers for protection. Start by adding contacts for all the people your loved one might expect calls from—friends, relatives, doctors, the local pharmacy. It can be fun to include photos, so a picture appears when they call. Then, adjust the settings to send all unknown numbers directly to voicemail. This way, your loved one can listen to messages at their leisure and decide if they want to return the call.

You can take a similar approach for email. Set up email contacts so that messages from known addresses get priority, and spam gets filtered out and trashed.

Add Extra Security to Older Adults’ Accounts

Advocate for seniors to implement additional security measures for their financial and online accounts. This can include setting up two-factor authentication, using complex and unique passwords for each account, and regularly monitoring accounts for any signs of unauthorized activity. Many financial institutions offer services specifically designed to protect older adults from fraud, such as alerts for suspicious transactions.

Ensure Older Adults Do Not Answer Calls From Numbers They Don’t Recognize

A significant number of scams begin with a simple phone call. Advise seniors to let calls from unknown numbers go to voicemail. The call can be returned if needed. Scammers often use high-pressure tactics over the phone to extract personal information or financial details. If a call is important, the caller will leave a message, and the legitimacy of the request can be verified before any information is shared. Add your parent's number to the National Do Not Call Registry at DoNotCall.gov or by calling 1-888-382-1222.

Make a Script

Phone scammers rely on our innate sense of courtesy and the element of surprise. Having a simple script next to the phone can help older adults respond confidently to suspicious calls. Statements like “I don’t do business over the phone,” “I know this is a scam because you’re asking for a gift card,” or “I have to check this out with my son who is a police officer first,” can be effective.

Beware of Sudden Changes

There’s a good deal of awareness around phone and online scams, but interpersonal scams can be more insidious for older adults. Relationships of undue influence may drain the victim’s life savings. This is where someone comes into the victim’s life, potentially through false pretenses, and inserts themselves into their life, ending up on their will or having joint bank accounts. Older adults who are isolated, who have lost a spouse, or another stable connection are especially vulnerable to this kind of scam. If your loved one suddenly makes decisions that seem out of character, is spending a lot of time with a new person, stops paying their bills on time, is ungroomed, or seems to be less in control of their own life, you should be concerned about undue influence.

Introduce Older Adults to the Elder Abuse Hotline

Ensure that seniors are aware of an elder abuse hotline in your area. This is a resource where they can report suspicious activity or seek assistance if they suspect they’ve been targeted by fraudsters. Having the contact information for such a hotline readily available can provide a sense of security and a clear action plan in the event of attempted fraud. One such hotline is 1-833-FRAUD-11.

Commiserate, Don’t Condescend

Acknowledging that scams happen across demographics and using that as a way to talk to older loved ones can make the conversation productive, not condescending. Sharing knowledge rather than lecturing is the best approach. For example, discussing an article about an email scam and offering to help set up email priorities or advising them to delete spam emails are great ways to start.

Check In Regularly

The best way to prevent these interpersonal scams, and all confidence schemes, is to check in regularly. Have conversations about email and phone scams, which evolve all the time, and share resources like the AARP fraud helpline. Connect with your loved ones and meet the people in their life. If you’re far away, set up a system to video chat so you can see how they are doing.

Regular visits, calls, and video chats can act as a protective barrier, helping to offset loneliness and making it harder for scammers to take advantage of your loved one.

By taking these steps, you can help protect older adults from scams and ensure their financial safety.

Elder Fraud statistics according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center's (ic3) 2023 Elder Fraud Report. Article content and third-party links are provided for information purposes only.