Reports show that older adults are often the target of fraud, such as investment fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud and similar schemes.
For instance, one report looked at those who had lost over $10,000 in a scam between 2020 and 2024. The number of people who had been scammed quadrupled in that short time.
It was even more pronounced when looking at those who had lost over $100,000. In the same time period, the amount of money lost increased eightfold, and there were seven times as many reports of these scams occurring.
Access to financial assets
As this demonstrates, one of the biggest reasons why older adults are often targeted is simply that they have access to more assets. Young people are often also targeted by scams, but their losses may be lower.
In many cases, older adults are at or nearing retirement age, so they have been saving assets their entire lives. They may have financial assets exceeding $1 million, so they are simply a more lucrative target for someone carrying out a scam. Ironically, they are also often very concerned with protecting their assets, and scammers sometimes use this vigilance against them by posing as members of official businesses or organizations.
Taking legal action
When considering investment fraud, securities fraud and other types of scams, it is very important for those involved to understand exactly what legal options they have and what steps they can take moving forward. This is especially true when significant sums of money are on the line. An experienced attorney can help at this time.
