Seniors vs. Crime: High-dollar fraud losses up sevenfold

The scale of losses to older Americans due to imposter frauds are soaring.

The Federal Trade Commission just released a report showing adults over 60 years of age who reported losing more than $100,000 increased seven times from 2020 to 2024. That’s a 700% increase in these high-dollar scam losses in just four years.

Scammers are not really interested in a small payday of several thousand dollars. They are after all your money!

How is this happening? Scammers know they must engage with people, and they must create a crisis, something with urgency and fear. They scare people.

All those phony emails and texts from Amazon, Paypal, Best Buy, US Postal Service, or the Geek Squad informing you of pending charges are sent out with one purpose – to coax the recipient to call in and settle the matter. But if you do call that number, you won’t settle anything. You will become a scam target, and you will hear about more scary stuff, such as:

Someone is using your accounts. You will hear that money is routed through your bank account in the middle of the night to fund child porn, arms sales, or going to the “dark web”
The scammers tell you your information is linked to serious crimes. You will hear your social security number “shows up” in drug trafficking or the child sex trade
Your computer is compromised and is used to make the money transfers and facilitate the crimes they “discovered” associated with you

But that helpful person you talk to on the phone will work hard to clear your name and get you out of this situation. You just have to follow their instructions – which always involve moving your money away from your bank or credit union to a safe place.

Celeste came to me this week with a story which tracks closely the scenarios you just read about. Celeste uses an iPad. It locked up and she heard a shrill audio telling her “You’ve been hacked”.

She called the number showing up on her screen and reached Apple Customer Service – she thought. That Apple rep told Celeste someone used her computer on the dark web to fund child porn and make arms sales. He told her he planned to have a Federal Trade Commission agent call her. And someone did call 90 seconds later. That guy offered to settle the whole matter for $30,000. But he settled for $10,000 to keep her accounts from getting frozen. The FTC agent told Celeste to go to her bank, make up a story for the teller, withdraw the $10,000, and stay on the phone. She did.

Next, the FTC agent told her to go to Fareway and deposit the money for safekeeping in an ATM and stay on the phone. She did. This is where fate starts to help out Celeste. The Fareway manager, Bill Fowler, keeps a close eye on this cryptocurrency kiosk. When he saw Celeste come in, looking anxious and talking on the phone, he moved closer. When she withdrew her $10,000 from her envelope, he intervened, taking the phone and breaking that connection. He told Celeste she was being scammed, and to keep her money. She did. Happy ending? Not quite.

The scammer called Celeste back and threatened her for “bringing a third party in”. Celeste said the whole episode terrified her, from start to finish.

No one from a government agency will never tell you to move your money to “protect” it, deposit cash into a Bitcoin ATM, or hand off cash or gold bars to a courier. Those are always a scam.

How to protect yourself

Don’t transfer or send money to anyone in response to an unexpected call, even when they say you must “protect” it
If you hear all this scary stuff and threats, talk to someone you trust.
If you think that text or email might be real, verify. Contact that party using a phone number or email you know is real. Never use the contact number from an unexpected message

Contact Seniors vs. Crime

Let me know about scams, fraud, or other crookedness you run across. Most of what I learn, I learn from you. Contact me at Seniors vs. Crime, Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, 563-242-9211, Ext. 4433, or email me at randymeier@gapa911.us.