Thousands of Americans across the country were taken in by con artists running sophisticated investment scams last year, leading to more than a billion dollars in losses, according to a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the FBI’s Elder Fraud Report for 2023, which compiles data from its Internet Crime Complaint Center, the total losses reported to the IC3 last year by those over the age of 60 surpassed $3.4 billion, a nearly 11 percent rise from 2022.
Those numbers likely understate the footprint of elder fraud, the FBI said, as just about half of all the 880,000 complaints lodged with IC3 last year including age data.
Based on the known picture, investment scams have an outsized financial impact on elderly fraud victims. Out of the more than 100,000 complainants over 60 captured in the report, just 6,443 fell prey to such schemes, but they reported a total loss of roughly $1.24 billion – more than a third of the estimated $3.4 billion in losses across all forms elder fraud combined.
“Investment fraud involves complex financial crimes often characterized as low-risk investments with guaranteed returns,” the report said.
The FBI highlighted several variants of investment fraud impacting seniors, including advanced fee frauds, Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, market manipulation fraud, and real estate investing.
The report also cast a spotlight on cryptocurrency investment scams, noting they’re mostly involve social engineering and engendering the victim’s trust. Using fictitious identities, scammers of this ilk would often target individuals on dating applications, social media, professional networking sites, or encrypted messaging applications.
“In 2023, the IC3 received over 15,000 complaints from individuals over the age of 60 involving the use of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Ripple,” the report said, noting reported losses from crypto scams amounted to $1.1 billion in 2023.
Cryptocurrency investment scams were the leading category of crypto fraud among elderly investors, it said, representing around 64 percent of all crypto-related losses for the cohort. All told, crypto investment scams led to some $716 million in losses for elderly victims.
The FBI’s elder fraud report made special note of romance scams, where scammers fabricate a romantic or close relationship to manipulate or steal from their victims. A related type of fraud, confidence scams, involves perpetrators eliciting sympathy or a sense of affection from their marks in other ways.
“In 2023, the IC3 received reports from 6,740 individuals over the age of 60 who experienced almost $357 million in losses to Confidence/Romance scams,” the report said.
Within that category, the FBI said grandparent scams, where con artists impersonate a panicked loved one in desperate and immediate need of money, accounted for 200 complaints from 60-plus-year-old Americans, who suffered a collective $2.3 million in losses.
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