Seniors Are Falling Victim to Fraud at an Alarming Rate in This State

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24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Elder fraud in 2023 increased by 14% from 2022, according to FBI data
• In some states, the problem seems to be significantly more prevalent

Former congressman George Santos pleaded guilty to a pair of felony fraud charges -- committing wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Though the disgraced Santos did not necessarily target older Americans, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says it receives daily thousands of complaints reporting a wide array of scams, many of them targeting the elderly.

According to the IC3, total losses resulting from fraud and reported by those over the age of 60 topped $3.4 billion in 2023, an almost 11% increase in reported losses from 2022. There was also a 14% increase in complaints filed with IC3 by elderly victims. And the FBI believes these numbers are probably considerably under reported.

To find in which states elder fraud is highest, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the report States Where Elder Fraud Is on the Rise in America from All About Cookies. The site, which provides information, tips, advice, and recommendations regarding online privacy, identity theft prevention, digital security, and others, calculated how many fraud complaints were reported in each state per 100,000 residents 60 years and older. We also added from the FBI’s 2023 Elder Fraud Report regarding the overall number of elder fraud complaints and the overall related losses. States and the District of Columbia are ranked here by the number of elder fraud complaints per 100,000 over 60 residents.

Why are we covering this

Despite attempts to combat the phenomena, financial exploitation of those over 60 years of age is increasing. It is the age group that submitted the most fraud complaints and had the largest loss compared to all age groups in 2023.

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