Elder Fraud Loss Statistics
Reported fraud losses for victims aged 60 and over, drawn from FTC and FBI IC3 annual reports and the FTC's Protecting Older Consumers series.
Last reviewed: 1 June 2026
Adults aged 60 and over are targeted disproportionately by certain high-value fraud types and, when victimised, typically lose far more per incident than younger adults. Both the FTC and FBI IC3 publish dedicated elder fraud data.
All figures below are from named official reports. Under-reporting is a particular concern with older adults, who may not know where to report or may feel reluctant to do so.
Key figures
Nearly $4.9 billion from over 147,000 complaints — a 43% increase on 2023
Reported fraud losses by adults 60 and over (FBI IC3 2024)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Annual Report (2024)
$83,000 — compared to just over $19,000 across all age groups
Average loss per victim aged 60 and over (FBI IC3 2024)
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2024 Annual Report (2024)
$2.4 billion — up fourfold from $600 million in 2020
Reported fraud losses by adults 60 and over (FTC 2024)
Source: FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025 Report (2024)
Combined losses from these high-value reports increased eightfold, from $55 million in 2020 to $445 million in 2024
Older adults reporting losses of more than $100,000 (FTC 2024 vs 2020)
Source: FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025 Report (2024)
Investment scams — older adults lost more to investment fraud than to any other fraud type in 2024
Top fraud type by losses for adults 60 and over (FTC 2024)
Source: FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024–2025 Report (2024)
Key takeaways
- Adults aged 60 and over reported nearly $4.9 billion in fraud losses to the FBI IC3 in 2024 — 43% more than in 2023.
- The average IC3-reported loss for a victim aged 60 or over was $83,000, more than four times the all-ages average.
- FTC data show a fourfold increase in losses for older adults from 2020 to 2024.
- The number of older adults losing $100,000 or more grew eightfold in that same period.
Frequently asked questions
Are older adults more likely to be defrauded than younger people?
The data show that older adults are more likely to suffer larger individual losses, but younger adults actually report losing money to a scam more often by proportion. The difference lies in the type of scam: older adults are more heavily targeted by high-value investment, tech support, and government impersonation schemes, which produce larger per-incident losses. Both groups face significant fraud risk.