WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission has released its new report, Protecting Older Consumers, 2022-2023, A Report of the Federal Trade Commission, which has that older adults reported losing more than $1.6 billion to fraud in 2022.
“Because the vast majority of frauds are not reported, this figure represents only a fraction of the overall cost of fraud to older consumers, which the FTC estimates to be as high as $48 billion,” the FTC said.
The report also found that in 2022, older adults reported significantly higher losses to investment scams, business impersonation scams and government impersonation scams than they did in 2021:
- Investment scams: $404 million reported lost, up 175% from 2021
- Business impersonation scams: $271 million reported lost, up 78% from 2021
- Tech support scams: $159 million reported lost, up 117% from 2021
Who’s Filing Reports
“As in prior years, the analysis of fraud reports received by the FTC in 2022 showed that adults aged 60 and over were substantially less likely to report losing money to fraud than adults aged 18-59. When they did report losing money, though, they tended to report losing substantially more than younger adults. Consumers 80 and older reported losing a median of $1,750 to fraud, while those in their seventies reported a median loss of $1,000, with both numbers increasing over 2021,” the FTC said.
Overall, the analysis included in the report to Congress also found adults 60 and older were more than six times as likely as adults aged 18 to 59 to report losing money to a tech support scam. Older adults were more than twice as likely to report a loss to a prize, lottery or sweepstakes scam, and 73 percent more likely to report losing money to a friend or family impersonation scam.
Report Urges Congress to Act
In addition, the report calls on Congress to update the FTC Act in response to the Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling in the AMG Capital Management case, which severely limited the FTC’s ability to recover money that older adults and other consumers lose to scammers, the FTC said.
The report’s analysis shows that older adults filed the largest number of reports about online frauds—where consumers were first exposed to the fraud via social media, the web, or online ads. The largest median losses, however, were reported by older adults on fraud that started with a phone call. The impact of scams where older adults were contacted on social media also increased; the median reported loss from this type of scam jumped from $460 in 2021 to $800 in 2022, the FTC noted.
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