Elder Fraud on the Rise! FBI Warns Retirees of Scammers Who Stole $1.7 Billion in 2021
According to the FBI, over 90,000 senior Americans were victims of elder fraud where fraudsters took $1.7 billion in 2021, a sharp increase from the year before. Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images

More American grandparents are becoming victims of elder fraud by using the internet to connect with their families, buy stuff online, and even find a significant other.

However, most of them do not understand that connecting to an unsecured Wi-Fi comes with the danger of scams that may cost them their life savings.

Fox News noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has shown that there has been an alarming rise in scams against older people over the past few years.

According to a report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in 2021, more than 92,000 people lost $1.7 billion to scams that targeted older people. Compared to 2020, the losses went up by 74%.

FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigation Division Aaron Tapp said, "elder fraud is simply financial fraud that targets any individual, any citizen in the United States over the age of 60."

He added that any fraud scheme targets the elderly, whether romance-based or technology-based.

Tapp says that the biggest reason for the rise in elder fraud is that people over 65 are not as tech-savvy as younger people. Scammers take advantage of people who know little about technology to steal thousands of dollars from them.

Tapp continued by saying that technology is just a way for these scammers to steal from people, and so, as technology gets better, they will use it in any way they can to take advantage of older people.

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Not All Elder Fraud Scams Gets Reported

The fact that the majority of cases of abuse are not reported is one issue that the Justice Department's increased efforts to combat financial exploitation do not address.

The National Center on Aging estimates that one in ten Americans 60 and older has been a victim of elder fraud.

According to Forbes, some estimates say that 5 million older people are abused yearly. Meanwhile, one study found that only one out of every 24 cases of abuse is reported to the authorities.

Law enforcement looks at reports of abuse to decide what action to take. Since most instances are never reported, there are a lot of neglected victims and abusers who get away with their crimes.

Moreover, if a family member or other trusted person took advantage of an older person, it may be hard for them to report a crime.

Only a Few Victims of Elder Fraud Scam Get Their Money Back

The Department of Justice says that since September, 150,000 older Americans who lost $52 million in fraud schemes have gotten their money back.

But this number only shows a small part of the people hurt by what some law enforcement officials call "grandparent scams."

The DOJ added that since March 2020, more than 148,000 victims had received more than $366 million because of a criminal settlement with Western Union in 2017.

The settlement was made "for the company's willful failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and its aiding and abetting of wire fraud," The Crime Report noted.

Additionally, the IC3 of the FBI's Recovery Asset Team (RAT) was successfully freezing nearly $21 million in assets delivered to scammers.

"Efforts like these display our unwavering dedication to protecting our older citizens and combating fraudsters who look to exploit them," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Elder Fraud on the Rise - From WHNT News 19