Seniors, Scams, and Swindles, Part 2

Author: Deborah Bongiorno

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A blog for older Americans to help them make the most of their prime retirement years and age well

Seniors, Scams, and Swindles, Part 2

FBI: The Bad Guys Hit Seniors the Hardest; Tips for Avoiding Scams and Lowering Your Risk

Our last blog reported on the numerous, fast-moving scams orchestrated by international organized crime syndicates who increasingly target seniors. The FBI’s 2025 IC3 Annual Report (IC3 is the Internet Crime Complaint Center) states that adults age 60 and older reported losses of $7.7 billion — about a 60 percent increase from 2024.

That said, only about 10 percent of all scams are reported, says Aktoh Cyber CEO James Spitler, who has developed sophisticated software for businesses and consumers to prevent widespread scams. He says the real number of scams is much higher. In addition, with the advent of AI as the powerful new engine driving widespread scams, Spitler says it only costs scammers about 70 cents per hacking attempt. But falling victim to a scam isn’t inevitable simply because you’re reached a certain age.

This blog offers some practical tips to avoid getting taken to the cleaners–which all too often can mean losing your hard-earned life savings, jeopardizing your overall financial well-being, tainting your medical history, and even endangering your identity. To compile this blog, we talked with Spitler and tapped several other sources; see our list below.

Stop Them Before They Stop You. Let’s begin with the basics to stop scammers from targeting you in the first place.

It starts with a healthy mix of skepticism and savvy–enough skepticism to cast a wary eye on offers too good to be true (they usually are) and enough savvy to spot typical rip-offs. Keep five common red flags in mind, advises the Federal Trade Commission:

Someone pretending to be with an organization or government agency you know and trust.
Someone saying there’s an immediate prize for you to win or a sudden disaster to prevent and all you have to do is fork over your credit card number to collect fake winnings or avoid a bogus catastrophe.
Someone pressuring you to act immediately.
Someone requiring you to pay for something in a specific, unorthodox way–cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like gift cards, Western Union, MoneyGram, or peer to peer payment apps like Venmo.
Someone asking you for sensitive information … your Social Security Number, credit card or debit card number, and the like.

Beyond knowing these warning signs, experts say practice several front-line prevention measures:

Verify all unsolicited requests for money. Spitler and other experts advise waiting 48 hours before sending money to anyone making a request for immediate cash. Nothing is ever so important it can’t be postponed for a few days.
Appoint a trusted contact–a tech or financial savvy family member or bank contact to provide advice and guidance.
Use call-blocking technology and register your landline on FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry.
Require repair crews to show ID before they enter your home and don’t hesitate to ask them to leave if they can’t or won’t.
Use a cross-cut shredder or keep an eye out for special shred days sponsored by your bank.
Use an online password manager to keep your passwords secure and switch up passwords periodically, especially for financial records and online retail accounts.
Regularly monitor your credit reports and freeze your accounts if you see something untoward.
Carefully review Medicare’s Explanation of Benefits statements to spot unauthorized charges.
Take in your mail everyday, drive outgoing mail to your post office, or hand it directly to your mail carrier.
Learn to spot card skimmers (which result in about $1 billion in losses annually) especially at the gas pump. Wiggle the card reader. Does it detach or move around in its slot? Move on. Does the card reader look or feel “funny?” Move on. Do the security seals look tampered with or broken? Move on!
Use authentications that pair two forms of ID to access your financial accounts, such as your password with a code sent to your phone or a biometric scan such as your thumbprint or facial recognition.

But what to do when scammers break through these prevention measures? Be wary of these frauds.

A Kid In Trouble. Is there anything more heartwrenching than getting a phone call from a grandchild or an adult child in trouble? Is the call real or a scammer impersonating your loved one? Only one way to find out. Hang up and call your loved one.

Also, set a “challenge phrase” and unusual password with your family and even businesses you work with (lawyers, banks, churches, and so on) to use whenever you suspect a scam. Let’s say your challenge phrase is “When’s the best time to go fishing?” and your unusual password is something like “ardvaark” or “jetski.” The basic idea is ask a question that doesn’t make contextual sense and answer with an equally nonsensical password.

One more point about this kind of scam: It only takes one person who’s been victimized by a scam to infect an entire household and shared network. Everyone’s devices and accounts are at risk.

Slow Your (Online) Roll. Think twice about answering calls from unknown callers and send such calls to voice mail. If callers are legit, they’ll leave a message. If not … well, they won’t.

Fake emails, texts, and websites are also on the rise. One sure fire way to spot a thief masquerading as a legit company in an email? Click on the sender’s email address. Purposeful misspelling of “Amazon” (to cite one example) or an email address that’s revealed as random numbers and letters is a guaranteed scam. And beware of attachments from unknown senders. Malware is often planted via email attachments. When in doubt, quit the click.

As for websites, AL clones are mimicking trusted websites from businesses, state and federal government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. It’s best to type a URL directly in a search bar when you can.

Protecting your computer with traditional antivirus software is rarely sufficient protection. Instead, look for software that covers data loss prevention as well as psych analysis to combat social engineering. Either way, make sure the service isn’t a scam dressed up like protection.

And what about social media? Are you leaving breadcrumbs all over the Internet leading scammers directly back to your virtual front door? Set your profiles so only real friends can see your social media pages, and never accept friend requests from people you don’t know. But even this can be tricky to navigate–imposers masquerading as actual friends are rampant.

Just Say No. Forget your mother’s advice about being polite to strangers. Assume the worst when you get any kind of communication from people and organizations you don’t know, especially those asking for money. Turn on your phone setting for “silence unknown callers” to send such callers directly to voicemail.

If a scammer manages to break through your safeguards, get tough, don’t respond (no matter how tempting it is to give them an earful), and hang up with no guilt. If something doesn’t sound right, trust your instincts to distrust. An unknown person asking for the name of your bank? Just say no. Asking about your medical insurance? Just say no. Your Social Security Number? JUST SAY NO! Even better than saying no is not answering in the first place. Send those scam calls directly to voice mail.

But Also Just Say Yes. If you’ve been victimized by a scammer, don’t stay silent even if you feel embarrassed and foolish. Speak up, lodge a complaint with an oversight agency, and help stop the scammers in their tracks. The faster you lodge a complaint, the faster you’ll minimize the fallout for you, your family, and the other honest folk on the scammer’s hit list.

What to Do if You’ve Been Scammed. If you believe you’ve been targeted by a scam, take action. Begin with these steps:

Contact your bank or credit card company immediately.
Change passwords for affected accounts.
Freeze your credit if your personal information has been compromised.
Report the incident to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. (See other reporting agencies below.)
Reach out to trusted family members or friends for support and help.

Most importantly, keep in mind that anyone can be scammed. Don’t let embarrassment stop you from stopping scammers. Remember that your very best prevention measure is you. Stay alert, stay educated, stay skeptical, and stay safe. It’s a jungle out there!

Blog Sources

Aktoh Cyber CEO James Spitler https://www.aktohcyber.com/

“10 Tips to Protect Seniors from Being Scammed,” Rachel Lerner, Esq., hebrewseniorlife.org, March 23, 2026

“Seniors Guide to Fighting Fraud,” ag.state.mn.us/consumer/[ublications

“How Seniors Can Protect Themselves from Scams,” wtpelf.com

“Protecting Older Adults from Fraud and Financial Exploitation," Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, consumerfinnce.gov

“15 Ways to Protect Yourself from Fraud," Amy Nofziger and Mark Fetterhoff, May 14, 2026, aarp.org/money/scams

FBI 2025 IC3 Annual Report, https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2025_IC3Report.pdf

Resources and Reporting Agencies

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-avoid-scam

InformedDelivery.usps.com.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau