Why are older adults targeted by scammers more often than younger people?

It would be a mistake to explain the targeting of older adults through a single factor — the reality involves several overlapping vulnerabilities that scammers recognise and exploit simultaneously. The most discussed is financial: people in their 60s and 70s often have retirement savings, property equity, and accessible cash that they have built up over a working lifetime. The potential reward from a successful scam is higher than it would be for someone just starting their career.

Social context matters significantly. People who live alone, have lost a partner, or have children who live far away can experience meaningful social isolation. When a scammer provides regular, warm, attentive contact, it fills a genuine gap. This makes the manufactured relationship feel especially real and especially precious, which is why older adults may continue engaging with a romance or investment scammer long after a less isolated person might step back.

Digital literacy patterns are relevant but not universal. While many older adults are fully comfortable with technology, there are also those who are less familiar with how spoofed phone numbers work, what a convincing phishing site looks like, or how to quickly verify a claim online. Scammers who understand their target demographic can calibrate their approach — using phone calls and postal mail rather than social media — to remain in the channel where their target is least defended.

Underreporting is a compounding factor. Research consistently finds that older adults are less likely to report fraud, partly from embarrassment and partly from fear that family members will use it as evidence that they need supervised care. This means scams targeting this group recur without generating the reporting data that would otherwise help authorities act faster.