WATCH OUT FOR SCAMS THAT TARGET OLDER ADULTS

Cryptocurrency cons and impersonation schemes are among the most common.

- BY EMMA PATCH

Scams that rob older adults of $100,000 or more have tripled since 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission. What is driving this trend?

The biggest crimes we're seeing are relationship-based investment scams, typically involving cryptocurrency. Scammers contact people on social media or send a text message, and they pretend that they sent the message to the wrong person. They use that as an entry point to begin a conversation that eventually becomes a trust relationship. Then the criminal suggests investing in cryptocurrency. Eventually, the victim loses everything. These criminals target older adults because that's where most of the money can be found.

These scams rose sharply during the pandemic, when a lot of people went online—many for the first time—to do everything from working to shopping, and the criminals followed. The Chinese mafia set up scam centers in vacant casinos, enslaving people through human trafficking and having them send out millions of text messages to lure victims.