Fraud Losses Reported by Older Americans Hit About 3 Billion Dollars

The amount older Americans are losing to scams keeps climbing. In its yearly report to Congress, released October 19, the Federal Trade Commission said adults 60 and older reported about 3 billion dollars in fraud losses in 2025, up from roughly 600 million dollars in 2020. That is close to a fivefold rise in five years, and the true total is almost certainly higher. Because so much fraud goes unreported, the FTC estimated the real cost to older adults in 2025 could reach as high as 119.5 billion dollars.

Investment scams did the most damage, with more than 1 billion dollars in reported losses, up 42 percent. Next came people posing as the government, people posing as a business, and romance scams.

A recent case shows how these schemes operate. The Justice Department announced on November 3 that Mael Chemla, a 61 year old former Florida resident, was extradited from Germany and made his first court appearance in Miami the day before. He is charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. According to the Justice Department, from September 2016 through November 2020 he and others mailed letters made to look like personal notes from psychics, telling people a cash windfall was coming if they first sent a payment. Officials say the operation took in more than 4 million dollars from thousands of people, many of them elderly, and moved the money to bank accounts in Europe. Chemla is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Scams tend to spike during Medicare open enrollment, which is underway now. Callers and text messages pretend to be from Medicare or an insurer and push you to act fast. Remember one simple rule. No honest plan representative asks you to pay a fee to find you the best plan.

The warning signs are usually the same. A stranger creates panic and urgency, asks you to keep it secret, and wants payment in an odd way, such as gift cards, a wire transfer, cash handed to a courier, or a deposit into a Bitcoin machine. Any one of those is a strong signal to stop and hang up. Agreeing on a family safe word can also expose a fake emergency call in seconds.