It seems as though no matter how savvy and sophisticated we are, the scammers and fraudsters are one step ahead of us. With the availability of even more sophisticated technology, including artificial intelligence that can mimic your voice or clean up the typos and grammatical errors that used to give away a fraudulent email, it’s becoming harder and harder to avoid being scammed. Axios recently reported that 1 in 5 adult Americans have now fallen for some type of online scam, with Black and Hispanic adults reporting the biggest financial losses. According to Axios, about ½ of the scams perpetrated start with an email or social media outreach and another 20% come through a text message. Scammers often impersonate a bank or credit card company or pretend to be a tech support resource. In 2023, consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to scams, which was a 14% increase over the prior year. Given that many losses due to scams are never reported, these numbers likely underestimate the problem.

For older adults, the results of scams are even more dire. Financial fraud and scams are considered the most common form of criminal elder abuse currently happening, and older adults typically lose more than younger ones when it comes to scams. Cognitive impairment and social isolation set up older adults to be more susceptible to online scams, and it’s known that older adults may have trouble discerning the trustworthiness of those they come into contact with. There is research suggesting that vulnerability to financial scams may be an early indication of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults. Published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, researchers used MRI scans to determine that older adults with thinner brain regions associated with memory and decision-making were more likely to be vulnerable to financial scams. This visible thinning of the brain is possibly an early indication of the presence of Alzheimer’s.  

So what kind of scams are being perpetrated at this point? The Huffington Post outlined an array of “spoofing” scams designed to deceive you into thinking you are dealing with someone you know and attempting to elicit personal information that can lead to financial exploitation. These spoofers use an array of methods, including fake URLs and websites, text messages, phone calls, or emails, all deceptive and appearing to be legitimate. There are now scams that target those who are proactively trying to avoid scams, perpetrating such frauds by impersonating credit monitoring services and fooling even those with expertise in scams. And in a return to old-fashioned methods of committing fraud, Bloomberg recently reported on low-level bank employees using personal information taken from bank computers and selling the information for financial gain and nefarious purposes. These point out vulnerabilities in financial institutions that have not shown they can sufficiently safeguard the valuable private information of their customers. For a useful guide to the current scams being perpetrated against older adults using AI, put on your privacy settings and click here.

All of these financial exploits against vulnerable older adults underscore the need for loved ones and caregivers to be on guard and involved in monitoring financial affairs and tracking accounts and expenditures. Next Avenue recently profiled a well-educated couple, with the husband losing some decision-making capacity due to Parkinson’s, and the wife completely unaware of the financial losses he had endured as a result of his cognitive decline. The Washington Post also recently ran a 7-part series detailing the financial exploitation and fraud perpetrated against an older woman who lost her life savings, and the consequences that reverberated throughout her family. It seems that being a caregiver these days also means caring for the safety and well-being of your loved one’s financial affairs as well. For more tips on this additional task, read here.