The numbers stopped being abstract a while ago. Americans 60 and older reported $7.7 billion in fraud losses to the FBI last year, a 59 percent jump in a single year. The average victim lost $38,500. More than 12,400 people lost over $100,000 each.
The Carolinas are feeling it directly. North Carolinians 60 and older reported $164 million in fraud losses in 2025. Across the border, South Carolina residents in the same age group lost another $97.3 million, part of a statewide total that nearly doubled in a single year.
These are retirement accounts, home equity, and inheritances built over decades, gone in weeks.
How the Money Actually Leaves
The scams that cost older adults the most rarely look like scams at the start. Investment fraud took $3.5 billion from victims over 60 last year, most of it through fake trading platforms and cryptocurrency schemes that produce convincing statements showing gains that never existed. Tech support scams took another $1 billion, usually beginning with a pop-up warning or a call from someone claiming to be from a bank's fraud department.
The newer tools make the old scams harder to spot. The FBI logged more than 3,100 complaints from seniors involving AI last year, with losses topping $352 million. Voice cloning now powers grandparent scams, where a criminal calls sounding exactly like a grandchild in trouble and asking for money fast. Losses tied to crypto kiosks, the ATM-style machines where victims are directed to deposit cash, rose 58 percent in a year.
Speed and secrecy run through every version. The victim is pressured to act now and told to tell no one.
Awareness Is the Strongest Defense
FINRA research found that people who have heard of a specific scam are 80 percent less likely to engage with it. That makes the family conversation the single most effective protection available, and it costs nothing.
A few structural safeguards do heavy lifting alongside it. Verify any urgent request for money by calling the family member directly on a known number, never the one provided in the message. Enable multifactor authentication on financial accounts. Agree on a family rule that no financial decision over a set dollar amount happens same-day, no matter how urgent it sounds. Legitimate institutions never demand payment in gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency.
If money does move, speed matters. The FBI's Recovery Asset Team froze roughly half of reported elder fraud funds when victims filed quickly at ic3.gov. Shame keeps many victims silent, and silence is exactly what the fraud economy depends on.
Where Planning Fits
An advisor who knows your family's full picture provides additional level of oversight no software provides. When an unusual withdrawal request comes through, it gets a second look. Having a trusted contact on file means someone receives a call when activity looks off. And account structures, from view-only access for adult children to trusted contact designations, can be set up and ready to go long before they're needed.
Fraud prevention belongs in the same conversation as estate documents and retirement income. We build it into the planning work we do with families, and we'd welcome the conversation.
Sources: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Annual Report; FBI field office 2025 IC3 state data; FINRA Foundation research on fraud susceptibility