WASHINGTON — The elderly are now more than before the main focus of criminal fraudsters, according to a recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The record number of deceptions on older people exceeds several billion dollars.
In 2023, scammers stole a total of $3.4 billion from seniors in the United States, according to the FBI report, which reveals the significant increase in this practice through sophisticated tactics designed to strip victims of their life savings. .
Scam losses against Americans over 60 increased 11% last year compared to the previous year, according to the report. Authorities warn that tactics such as sending couriers in person to victims’ homes to collect cash or gold are on the rise.
“It can be a devastating blow for elderly citizens who do not have the ability to go to work and earn money,” said James Barnacle, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Criminal Investigations Division. “There are people who lose all their money, who end up destitute.”
More than 100,000 scam reports
The FBI received more than 100,000 reports of scams against people over 60 last year, and nearly 6,000 of those people lost more than $100,000.
This comes after a sharp increase in embezzlements against the elderly during the two years following the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, when people could not leave their homes and easily fell victim to telephone scammers.
The authorities, Barnacle added, have detected organized and transnational plots against elderly citizens using a wide variety of tactics, such as false romantic proposals or requests to invest money.
The most common type of scam reported last year among seniors involved people posing as technical support or customer service personnel.
In one of the schemes, authorities say, criminals pose as technology, banking or government officials and convince victims that a foreign hacker has infiltrated their accounts and that they have to move their money to another account, which Scammers control secretly.
The authorities detected that between May and December a scam increased in which couriers go in person to collect money from victims those they convince that their accounts have been hacked, the FBI said.
In such cases, the scammers first victims are told their accounts have been hacked and they have to convert their assets into money, gold or other precious metals in order to protect their funds. Then they send the courier to your home to collect the resources in person.
Source: With information from AFP.
