Your Bank May Not Cover This: 3 Scams Now Targeting Retirees – and How to Avoid Them
The numbers are staggering, and they keep climbing. Total fraud losses reported by older adults aged 60 and over increased about fourfold from 2020 to 2024, skyrocketing from about $600 million in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2024. But that reported figure almost certainly represents only a fraction of what is actually being stolen. The FTC warns that the real losses are far higher due to underreporting, with the agency estimating that the overall cost of fraud to older adults in 2024 was between $10.1 billion and $81.5 billion, depending on methodology. What makes this even more alarming is how scammers operate: they move fast, move money overseas, and by the time a victim realizes something is wrong, the bank is often powerless to help.
1. The Government and Business Impersonation Scam
This is the fraud that has seen the most explosive growth in recent years, and it works precisely because it targets something retirees reasonably care about – protecting their money. Scammers conjure a fake crisis and pose as trustworthy sources, perhaps a representative for a bank or companies like Amazon, Apple, or Microsoft, or workers at a federal agency like the Social Security Administration or FTC, who can supposedly help them fix it. In the process, they persuade unsuspecting victims to transfer their money to “keep it safe” or for another bogus reason. The emotional pressure applied is intense and deliberate. Scammers create a sense of urgency to lure victims into immediate action, typically by instilling trust and inducing empathy or fear, or the promise of monetary gains, companionship, or employment opportunities.
The scale of the damage is hard to overstate. In 2024, the FTC received 8,269 reports from adults age 60 and older claiming to have lost at least $10,000 to an imposter scam – a figure up 362% from 1,790 reports in 2020. Sometimes, financial loss amounts to households’ entire life savings. “Some people 60+ have reported emptying their bank accounts and even clearing out their 401ks,” the FTC wrote. Once money is transferred, getting it back is far from guaranteed. As Kathleen Daffan, an assistant director with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, put it: “It can be really difficult to recover the money. The scammers move really quickly to get the money and move it elsewhere, often overseas.” The FTC recommends a straightforward rule: never transfer or send money to anyone, no matter who they say they are, in response to an unexpected call or message. If someone claims to be from a government agency or your bank and demands you move money immediately, hang up and call that institution directly using a phone number you already know to be real.
2. The Tech Support Scam
Tech support fraud has become one of the most consistent threats to retirees, partly because it preys on very rational fears about online security. Tech scammers still use fake security pop-ups to get victims to call a number, but instead of telling them there’s a virus, they now say someone hacked their bank, investment, or retirement account and is using it for fraud. To “help,” they transfer the victim to another scammer who pretends to be with a government agency or the fraud department at their bank. The scam escalates quickly from there. The scammer says the only way to protect the money is to transfer it to a new account – but the scammer controls that account and quickly cleans it out. Adults 60 years and older are more likely to be victims of tech support scams than any other age group, and according to the FBI’s 2024 IC3 report, adults 60 and older lost $98 million to tech scams alone.
AI has made these scams far more convincing in 2025. Artificial intelligence has transformed many industries, but it has also provided cybercriminals with new tools to con people. Scammers can now use AI to create convincing phishing emails, deepfake videos, and fake voices, and pose as tech support from a legitimate business using a spoofed telephone number. Here is the hard truth about recovery: scammers insist victims pay with gift cards, a wire transfer, a bank transfer, cryptocurrency, or a payment app – because it’s like using cash, and once you pay, it’s hard to get the money back. If you are ever contacted out of the blue about a tech problem, the safest response is to close any pop-up, never call numbers displayed on your screen, and contact your real bank or software provider directly using contact details you look up yourself. A legitimate technical refund can be processed without remote access to your computer or your bank account – if they ask for remote access for a refund, it is 100% a scam.
3. The Romance and “Pig Butchering” Investment Scam
Of all three scams, this one demands the most time and patience from criminals – and inflicts some of the most devastating losses. It is typically an overseas-based fraud where scammers connect with victims online, form a relationship, then lure them into bogus cryptocurrency investments. The criminal may take weeks or months to establish trust, grooming the victim and finding commonalities, before eventually mentioning that they’ve recently made a lot of money on a certain investment platform. The approach is so methodical that it has earned its own grim name. The perpetrators of this scam refer to it as “pig butchering” fraud. Fraudsters will contact victims through wrong number texts, dating apps, or commonly used social media platforms. The new “friend” will seem attractive and wealthy, supposedly due to trading digital commodities or forex. After weeks of communications, the new friend will encourage the victim to invest as well. Initially the victim will think they’re making money, so they will invest more – and once they have nothing left to invest, the money and the friend will disappear.
The financial damage from this category of fraud has now reached historic levels. The category that took the biggest financial toll on victims 60 and older in 2024 was investment scams, with more than $1.8 billion in total reported losses. Once cryptocurrency is transferred via a blockchain, recovery is nearly impossible – unlike bank transfers, there are no chargebacks, reversals, or consumer protections available to victims. Technology is making this scam even harder to detect: in October 2024, police in Hong Kong busted a financial grooming ring where criminals reportedly used deepfake software tools to participate in live video calls. The U.S. Secret Service offers clear guidance: be wary of people you meet on dating websites or social media who offer you unsolicited financial, investment, or cryptocurrency advice, and be cautious of unsolicited investment opportunities offered via phone, message, email, social media, or in person. If someone you have only met online is steering the conversation toward investments, that is the clearest warning sign there is.
