The article below provides helpful steps you can take to protect yourself from being defrauded. Do not let some imposter take your hard-earned money. Fight to protect and preserve it for you and potentially future generations and causes you hold dear.
Scammers Want to Steal Everyone’s Savings, Especially Seniors’ Savings. Here’s How to Protect Yourself.
Published
By Max Eddy
Max Eddy is a writer who has covered privacy and security — including password managers, VPNs, security keys, and more — for over a decade.
After working on fraud protection at the AARP for 23 years, Amy Nofziger knows a thing or two about scams. She’s the director of fraud and victim support for the volunteer-run Fraud Watch Network helpline, which annually receives 100,000 calls from people seeking help after being exploited by scam artists.
Nofziger said that older adults especially need to take scams seriously — all the more so since the emergence of generative AI tools that make traps even more effective. Some scams can be so bedeviling that the victims never find their way out of them, with heartbreaking results. “I’ve been working with a few families for years where their loved one cannot get pulled out of the scam,” she told us. “And they’ve decided that having that person in their life and […] having $500 or $1,000 stolen every month from them is okay.”
She also cautioned that while older adults may be particularly vulnerable to scam attempts, everyone should consider themselves a potential target. “If you don’t think this is going to happen to you, you’re probably the next person that’s going to happen to,” Nofziger said. “Start today to protect yourself, and then know where to go if something like this happens to you.”
A special risk for older adults
Experts agree that older adults certainly aren’t the only ones being targeted by scammers. “This is not something that’s only happening to older folks — if you have a dollar, the scammer wants that dollar, and they’re going to come after you,” said Megan Squire, a threat intelligence researcher at the digital security company F-Secure.
Yet experts say that older people may be targeted simply because they tend to have more worth stealing. “They’ll steal my 21-year old’s money, but they’d rather steal my mother’s money, right? Because she has more of it,” Nofziger noted. And the effects can be more impactful because a retiree may have less ability or time to earn back any money that’s been stolen.
The art of the scam
One factor that makes scammers so effective is that they frequently change tactics, so it’s harder for potential victims to be aware of threats. There are, however, some fundamental features of scams that stand out as immediately suspicious.
A common scam tactic is to create a false sense of urgency so that a potential victim feels the need to take immediate action. This is often fueled by employing fear or excitement: Scammers may try to frighten people with threats or lure them with promises of riches.
Scammers also seek to isolate victims from anyone who might intervene, warning them not to involve the people they trust. They may also use shame to prevent victims from reporting that they have been scammed. Scammers may also urge a target to keep their communication secret and threaten embarrassing consequences if they tell anyone.
A reliable red flag can be any transactions with requests for atypical payment methods. All scams are intended to fleece people of their money while protecting the scammers from consequences. This is often accomplished by relying on unusual forms of payment. For instance, one common method is for a scammer to ask a target to buy a pre-paid gift card and then have them provide the card’s ID numbers. Some scammers have even sent delivery couriers to pick up cash or gold from their victims.
Any request to be paid in cryptocurrency should set off warning signals. For most people, acquiring and transferring cryptocurrency would be a challenge. Yet some scammers bypass that by urging targets to send money using a crypto ATM. These ATMs look like regular cash machines, but they can convert cash into cryptocurrency, which can be electronically funneled to scammers. (And if a target can’t get to a crypto ATM, some scammers will even arrange for a car service to pick them up.) CNN reported that a single crypto ATM was used in fraud schemes totaling $118,000 in just one year.
Common scams to watch out for
Although it would be impossible to provide an exhaustive list of every potential scam, experts we spoke with highlighted the common types of scams that typically target older adults.
The impostor scam
Scammers pretend to be someone else to trick people into transferring money or providing personal information. They might take on the role of an authority figure, such as an employer, the police, a religious leader, the IRS or other government agencies, or a debt collector. They might even play the part of tech support to try to get people to unwittingly install malware or share their screen in order to steal personal information.
Impostor scams can be elaborate, sometimes involving multiple people. A scammer playing the part of a lower-level employee might transfer the victim to another scammer who’s posing as a manager, to give the appearance of legitimacy.
The grandparent scam
This variant of the impostor scam targets older adults by claiming that a child or grandchild is in need of help. Scammers create a sense of urgency by stating that the child or grandchild is having an emergency (often stating they’ve had an accident or have been arrested) and that they need money immediately (a plot made familiar to viewers of Thelma).
Scammers may use personal information to help make their attacks more effective. Experts we spoke with said there are instances of scammers calling their targets and using AI-generated voices, which are sometimes based on the voices of actual family members. Squire suggested that scammers may be building the models using snippets of audio from a child’s or a grandchild’s social media accounts. “They don’t need a very large sample,” she told us. “You only need a couple of seconds to do somebody’s voice.”
The romance scam
With this scam, before asking for money, the scammer develops a relationship with the target over a long period, building trust and rapport. If you’ve ever seen a text message that was sent “accidentally” and includes a photo of an attractive young person, or if you’ve gotten a text from an unknown number asking what you’re up to, you might have witnessed the opening salvo of a romance scam.
Romance scams are particularly disturbing because they extract some of the heaviest financial and emotional tolls. “It’s so prevalent that for our 25 volunteers that we have working every single day [on the Fraud Watch helpline], we have to be very careful about assigning them more than one romance scam per shift,” Nofziger said. “They’re so emotionally draining.”
Long-term scams don’t necessarily need to be romantic. A scammer might take on the role of a financial wiz, offering investment opportunities that invariably flow back to the scammer. These scams can be devastating to older adults as well. According to an FBI internet crime report, in 2024 alone, a total of $1,834,242,515 was lost in investment scams and $389,312,356 in confidence/romance scams by victims who were over age 60.
Practical protections
Older adults and the people they trust can take some measures to prevent being scammed, as well as to blunt the potential damage if a scammer is successful.
Pause before reacting. If you receive an unusual, urgent message of any type, take a moment to reach out through a different and trusted means, in order to confirm the message with the person or institution supposedly contacting you.
For instance, if you get a call from someone claiming to represent your bank, and they say you need to perform a financial transaction, hang up. And then call the number on the back of your debit card, so you can confirm whether the issue was legitimate. If you’re still unsure, ask people you trust what they think.
Create protections for finances. Nofziger suggested contacting financial institutions to set limits on specific activities on accounts, like wire transfers or purchases. One way to watch for signs of financial fraud is to request credit reports, which highlight activity that might otherwise go unnoticed. You can also attempt to prevent some forms of fraud by requesting a credit freeze. Credit rating agency Equifax notes that parents can opt to add a trusted adult child to their banking and credit accounts, so they can keep better tabs on accounts.
Filter unknown calls and texts. Some modern Android devices and iPhones using iOS 26 have a feature that automatically segregates messages and calls from unknown sources; you’ll still receive them, but they’re tucked away in a separate folder. Enabling these filters can prevent the types of random scam attempts that older adults may fall prey to.
Similarly, newer Android phones use AI to detect potential scams in calls and texts. Keep in mind that some of these features won’t work if you engage with the scammers. So it’s crucial that suspicious messages are deleted without being interacted with.
Although email services are better at filtering out scam messages, they’re not infallible. Some email clients, like Apple Mail and Thunderbird, let you create filter rules to send messages from anyone not in your contacts list to the junk or trash folders.
Audit or avoid social media. When you limit the information that’s visible in social media profiles and posts, it can become harder for scammers to tailor their targeted attacks or find samples to build AI voices. Social media can also be way for scams to spread, either through direct messages or ads on the platform.
It can be tedious to remove and limit public information from social media sites like Facebook. So this may be a task that older adults perform with the help of trusted family members. Be sure to save important personal photos and videos from these sites to a home computer or to a cloud-based photo-storage service, such as Google Photos or Apple Photos. Also, consider how limited these sites should be. Removing them entirely might cut off an avenue for scammers, but it could also prevent families from communicating easily.
Establish a family password. The experts we spoke with suggested establishing a family password in order to protect against impostor scams and AI-generated voices. That way, if family members receive an unusual request, they can simply ask for the password to confirm that someone is actually the person they claim to be. (This can take some practice.)
Employ digital hygiene. Everyone should install an ad blocker to protect against malicious ads. They should also use a password manager to generate unique and complex passwords for each online account, and they should secure those accounts with multi-factor authentication.
Keep in mind that while these tactics are important, they are intended to protect online accounts. Squire pointed out that many scammers aren’t trying to access accounts; instead many are interested in getting targets to send them money directly.
If you’re an older person’s trusted family member or caretaker, be proactive. Caretakers and family members should keep an eye out for gift cards, ATM receipts, and suspicious phone calls that might indicate a loved one has been caught up in a scam. They should also pay special attention if that person starts asking about the types of platforms and tools that are commonly used in scams — for instance, if the person asks for help with using instant-messaging platforms and social media or installing crypto apps, or if they request a ride to a new place (one that has a crypto ATM).
Changes in behavior are also something to watch for. If someone is suddenly sneaking off to send messages on their phone, or they are giddily talking about a new person they’ve recently met, it could be the sign of a romance scam in progress. “This is one of those things where you just really need to take a beat and listen,” Nofizger said.
Recovering from scams
Nofziger told us that the AARP’s scam support line (877-908-3360) is open to anyone, of any age. You don’t need to be an AARP member to call. “We try to really be the first stop or second stop in their fraud journey, but then empower and encourage them to move on to the next step, which most of the time is reporting it to law enforcement,” she said.
She told us the help line may also recommend that people submit a report through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and seek trusted legal assistance by contacting their local bar association.
If the scam involved payments of some kind, contact the bank or credit card company that was used to make the payment, in order to report fraud and attempt to reverse charges. If the victim purchased gift cards for a scammer, Nofziger suggested calling the number on the cards or contacting the company from which they were purchased to try and stop or reverse the transactions.
If the scam involves personal information — such as Social Security numbers or other private information — it may be necessary to take steps to prevent identity theft. Order credit reports through an official source to check for fraudulent activity, such as loans, lines of credit, or credit cards opened by the scammer. And place a freeze on your credit. Medicare fraud and Social Security fraud can be reported to the appropriate agencies.
If scammers had access to phones or computers via screen-sharing, or they received login information, it may be necessary to change the passwords for your online accounts. Remove suspicious apps, back up critical information, and consider searching for malware.
The key to recovering from a scam is being willing to talk about it in the first place. Everyone we spoke with stressed how shame can prevent those affected by scams from seeking help. That stigma carries its own burden, which Squire and others told us is unnecessary. “It’s not something to be ashamed of,” she said. “It’s just, you know, something that happens.”
“If you are a victim, please tell somebody,” Squire said.
This article was edited by Jon Chase and Christine Cyr Clisset.
Sources
Amy Nofziger, AARP director of fraud victim support, video interview
Megan Squire, F-Secure threat intelligence researcher, video interview
Abhishek Karnik, McAfee head of threat research, video interview
Suzanne Myklebust, director of communications at Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) at AARP, email interview
