Last spring, my grandma sent me an innocuous text: “Dang weather! It’s too stormy to drive, but I need to pick up some Target gift cards to pay my DirecTV bill.”
Unbeknownst to her, the DIRECTV representative she had spoken to was a scammer who convinced her she could pay her bill with gift cards.
My grandma’s story is one of thousands. Hers has a better ending than most because I stopped her in time. Take Alice Lin, a then-81-year-old woman from California who lost her entire life savings of $720,000 after a man on a messaging app persuaded her to invest in a fake cryptocurrency app.
Financial scams cost Americans over the age of 60 roughly $1 billion in 2020, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report. In 2025, these losses surpassed $7.7 billion, the report said. The Federal Trade Commission warns that unreported cases from 2024 could push the true total to a staggering $81.5 billion. The average victim lost $38,000, primarily to investment fraud, tech support scams and business email compromises, according to the FBI.
The consequences of financial fraud for seniors can be crippling and irreversible. Unlike younger victims, most seniors live on fixed incomes. When seniors lose their life savings, they risk losing access to medications, daily care and basic necessities like food. Scams can erase a lifetime of stability in a matter of seconds.
Older victims also experience health complications, including increased rates of hospitalization, nursing home admissions, anxiety and even early death. Lin told KQED that she contemplated suicide after losing everything.
A 2024 study found that older adults are also more likely to become repeat victims, falling for different scams over their lifetimes.
Despite bearing the heaviest financial burden, older adults are not the most frequently targeted group. Younger adults aged 18-39 reported 297,000 scam complaints compared to 201,000 from those over 60, according to the FBI. That said, being targeted and falling victim are two very different things. In fact, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s research shows that awareness and prior exposure to scam tactics significantly strengthen a person’s ability to recognize and resist fraud.
Young adults must become the first line of defense against financial fraud targeting older loved ones.
Years spent chronically online have built a familiarity with scams that many older adults lack. They did not grow up with online banking, cryptocurrency platforms or phishing emails like younger generations did. That advantage comes with the responsibility to help older adults navigate suspicious financial situations.
For too long, many younger people, myself included, have shrugged off scams. I’ve deleted countless emails from bots named “Michael Stanley” claiming that PayPal authorized a $1,199 iPhone purchase I never made.
Although the scam seemed so obvious it was almost laughable, my grandma’s story reminded me that these schemes are not obvious to everyone.
The next victim of a financial scam could be someone you love, and thinking it won’t happen to your family is not enough to protect people from the growing sophistication of today’s scams. Recognizing the danger is only the first step – acting before a scam succeeds is what truly makes a difference.
Check in with the older people in your life. Ask questions when something seems off. Offer help when they are unsure about something online. Something as simple as having a family group chat to open lines of communication can stop a scam before it starts.
It’s time we put our years online to work, protecting the people we love.
Mah is a recent graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics.
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