The Club PUBlication 06/02/2025

As scams hit $17B, nonprofit fights fraud against seniors
By MICHELLE SINGLETARY The Washington Post

Our interactions — through email, computers, mobile devices and social media — face relentless daily attacks.

Text messages can't be trusted. Every email should be seen as suspect. Answering the telephone puts you at risk of being defrauded.
Cybercriminals and scammers have infiltrated these spaces with alarming ease and they will keep siphoning victims' money without a stronger, unified response.

In its latest Internet Crime Complaint Center r eport, the FBI says criminals stole a record $16.6 billion in scams and cybercrime in 2024. That's a jump of 33% from a year earlier.

This year's report marks the 25th anniversary of the FBI's analysis of these crimes, a milestone that underscores a disturbing trend. Initially, the bureau got about 2,000 complaints every month. In the last five years, the number has exploded to an average 2,000 complaints every day.

Separately, complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, which also tracks fraud, echo this grim reality. The FTC reported that consumers lost more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% increase over the prior year. By the way, the FTC said that jump isn't the result of more reported complaints but a double-digit increase in the percentage of people who reported losing money.

These staggering figures don't fully convey the depth of the problem in the United States — because many people who are scammed don't report the crime or their losses.

That's why the FTC also adjusts for underreporting. In a report last year, the agency included an estimate that the overall loss in 2023 was in fact $158.3 billion. This total includes $61.5 billion stolen from seniors. (While younger adults report experiencing fraud more frequently, older adults tend to suffer greater financial losses.)

The case of a Maryland woman who lost nearly $600,000 in retirement funds to a sophisticated government impersonation scam, which I explored in a seven-part series last year, illustrated a fundamental weakness in our approach to financial fraud: We largely expect individuals to defend themselves, an approach that often leads to victim-blaming and further discourages reporting.

To combat this growing crisis, we need an aggressive strategy that moves beyond mere prevention through consumer education and prioritizes a coordinated nationwide initiative — encompassing both private and public entities to actively target and dismantle criminal operations.

This is the mission of the newly launched National Elder Fraud Coordination Center.

Founded and directed by former FBI agent Brady Finta, the nonprofit's initial partners include AARP, Google, Walmart and Amazon.

Finta said the center will use data from retailers, financial institutions and other businesses to create a unified front in elder fraud investigation across the United States.

This collaboration would make it easier to spot trends and connect individual cases stemming from the same criminal network, which are often based overseas. The center would then refer cases to federal authorities for investigation and prosecution.

"The new center will help law enforcement fill a significant gap in their abilities to address this type of fraud," said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention programs at AARP Fraud Watch Network.

Victims often express frustration after filing reports with agencies like the FBI or FTC and receiving no further communication. However, Stokes believes that connecting more cases could lead to better interventions. If more cases can be linked together, there's a better chance of stopping the scammers and disrupting the lucrative fraud business model," Stokes said.

She emphasizes the larger organized nature of these crime networks.
"We know that so much of what is happening in this country, where fraud is concerned, is coming from transnational crime gangs," she said.

Just as importantly, this new initiative may encourage more victims to report fraud. It represents an updated approach to prevention, driven by an understanding that current methods are insufficient. It's also driven by Finta's personal experience, which highlighted the limitations of consumer education.

As the former supervisory special agent and founder of the San Diego Elder Justice Task Force, he witnessed his own mother fall victim to a tech support scam — even though he had frequently discussed fraud risk with her.

Janet Finta, 80, said that about a year ago she purchased a new Apple computer. A problem arose, so she searched online for help. The first entry on her internet search led to an official-looking site that ended with a call to a con artist impersonating a customer representative from Apple.

"I thought he was being very helpful," Finta said . "He was so nice."

The impersonator kept her on the phone for more than an hour, eventually steering her to click on links to give him access to her financial accounts, which she later had to close.

"It's an emotional roller coaster," she said. "It takes your joy away."

Even knowing he could help, Finta said his mother was reluctant to share what had happened or file a complaint.

"My own mother told me, after she tried to hide the fact that she was a victim, 'Well, nobody was going to do anything anyway, so why even complain?' " he said. "But people have to come forward, or else we're never going to get our hands wrapped around this."
"The new center will help law enforcement fill a significant gap in their abilities to address this type of fraud."

Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention programs at AARP Fraud Watch Network