608 Defendants Charged in Theft of $2.3 Billion From 1 Million American Seniors

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged 608 defendants between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, for allegedly stealing more than $2.36 billion from elderly Americans, the department said in a Nov. 17 report.

The money was stolen from more than 1 million victims, the DOJ said.

“During the reporting period, the Department pursued 283 criminal and civil enforcement actions involving conduct that targeted or disproportionately affected older adults. Approximately 95 percent of the cases were criminal in nature and 36 percent involved international schemes,” according to the report.

“Seventy-eight percent of USAOs engaged in some form of elder justice enforcement this reporting period.” USAOs refer to the United States Attorneys’ Offices.

Some of the top schemes targeting elders involved investment fraud, romance scams, government impersonation, and grandparent scams, the DOJ said.

According to a 2024 Internet Crime Report from the FBI cited by the DOJ, there was a 46 percent year-over-year increase in the number of financial scam complaints filed by Americans aged 60 and above last year. Losses rose by 43 percent during this period.

In total, elders reported losing $4.88 billion last year. Approximately 7,500 older people were deprived of more than $100,000 each.

Investment fraud resulted in the highest loss among elders at $1.83 billion. Romance scams resulted in over $389 million in losses, while government impersonation led to losses of more than $208 million, according to the FBI report.

In its latest report, DOJ said it pursued over 40 types of elder fraud schemes during the reporting period.

Scams Targeting the Elderly

In investment scams, victims are typically promised strong returns on investments that far exceed the average returns of similar assets or ventures, the DOJ report said.

Once a fraudster receives the investment, they spend it on themselves and also pay partial returns to other victims “to ‘lull’ those victims into continuing to think their investment is legitimate,” it said.

“This ‘Ponzi-like’ trait allows the perpetrator to avoid the victims reporting the matter to law enforcement and often causes the victims to ‘invest’ even more money with the perpetrator, thereby increasing the losses to the victims.”

These people tend to target older people, since such individuals often have accumulated assets compared to younger generations and have fewer family members to assist them with financial matters, the report said.

Romance scams target older people as they often live alone and desire companionship.

Once they have their victims’ trust, malicious actors use false pretenses, such as medical emergencies, to steal money from them.

Impersonation scams involve fraudsters claiming to be from government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Treasury Department, or the Federal Trade Commission.

The criminals “claim some type of suspicious activity on a bank account, Amazon account, or similar type of account,” the report said. They use “fear and time pressure to create anxiety in the victim” and dupe them out of their money.

Victims are made to believe their funds have been linked to criminal activity or that their savings are at risk. They are then instructed to deposit their assets with “the government” for safekeeping.

In grandparent scams, elderly people are informed that their grandchild or some other loved one has had an emergency, typically a car accident, and urgently requires money to deal with the situation.

In the report, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the DOJ has held more than 1,000 public awareness and training events nationwide on elder fraud, reaching almost 15 million Americans.

Safeguarding Against Scams

To avoid being a victim of elder fraud schemes, the United States Secret Service advises people to be wary of unsolicited communications from unknown individuals or businesses.

It warned against providing personally identifiable information, bank access codes, or online passwords to people or businesses they have not yet verified as legitimate.

“Note that government agencies will never call you on the phone to threaten you or your loved ones with arrest or legal action if you do not agree to remit payment for things like debt collections, release from jail, or immigration status issues,” the agency said.

“Official notification from U.S. government agencies will almost always initially involve an official letter sent via regular mail.”

In an Oct. 23 report, JP Morgan advised people whose elderly relatives have been scammed out of money to immediately contact financial institutions to report the fraud and make sure their accounts are secure.

JP Morgan recommended freezing or locking the victim’s credit accounts to prevent further misuse, such as fraudsters opening accounts in their name.

“Strongly consider implementing two-factor authentication on digital accounts to avoid further account compromise and exposure of accounts’ personal or sensitive information,” the report said.

In July, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception (GUARD) Act to protect elderly Americans from financial fraud, according to a July 30 statement from the office of Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who supports the bill.

The proposed legislation targets scammers using blockchain technology, the foundation of cryptocurrencies, to defraud older people.

The bill seeks to allow state and local law enforcement to use federal grants to hire personnel and boost resources to investigate financial fraud using blockchain technology.